First look as River of Light makes a spectacular return to Liverpool’s waterfront
River of Light has returned to illuminate Liverpool. Running until November 5, the event showcases twelve artworks from a host of local, national and international artists. The theme of the 2km trail is United By Light which has taken inspiration from Eurovision.
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00:00 Liverpool's annual River of Light Festival has returned for 2023, showcasing illuminated
00:07 art installations created by innovative light artists from around the world.
00:12 I think it's really important that people get an opportunity to come out and about and
00:16 explore a city and maybe take a little bit more time meandering around areas that they
00:21 would sort of breeze through and get really immersed, especially sort of coming into winter
00:25 where people might fall off and in their houses. So getting people out and about is really
00:29 important and enjoying the city and for free events it's incredible.
00:33 Following on from last year's huge success, which welcomed a quarter of a million visitors
00:38 and brought in around £6 million to the local economy, 12 artworks created by artists will
00:45 light up the waterfront each night from 5pm till 9pm.
00:49 So this is our second time here in River of Light and we absolutely love the festival
00:54 so we're really glad to be back. We have actually four pieces and one of them, which is an exchange
01:00 flag, is a brand new piece. It's a world debut.
01:03 Commissioned specifically for River of Light.
01:05 The 2023 theme is United by Light, inspired by the United by Music strap line used when
01:12 Liverpool was the host city for the Eurovision Song Contest.
01:16 Joy is such an important part of the everyday and we hope each of these pieces the audience
01:20 can stumble upon. Something that we really focus on through Atelier Sisu is the idea
01:25 of the democratisation of art, so bringing art out of the galleries and into the urban
01:29 fabric of the city. It should be part of the everyday and that's what something like River
01:34 of Light does and it's so fantastic.
01:37 The popularity of last year's event was felt across the region with footfall up and restaurants,
01:42 bars and shops reporting a boost in sales. Liverpool 1 welcomed 1.7 million visitors
01:49 to their stores during the period. That's a 27% increase compared to the same period
01:54 in 2021. Liverpool Big Company also reported a significant increase in Church Street footfall
02:00 day on day.
02:01 We like people to get very involved and beyond taking photos, interact with the artwork.
02:07 One of our artwork is called Glow and it has buttons to be pressed and they just light up.
02:14 Elysian which is our new piece that's debuting here in River of Light is all about joy and
02:21 human happiness. We're living in a world in a state of flux and there's a lot of chaotic
02:28 stuff and so we wanted to create something that would bring people together and underline
02:34 what's joyful about life.
02:36 It's our perception and our representation of what joy is and we really hope that the
02:40 audience comes and visits that one specifically during both the day and the night. It illuminates
02:45 with our choreographed light show and a beautiful soundscape that was commissioned and created
02:51 by a Liverpoolian composer John McHugh so we're really excited for that all to be seen
02:57 and experienced together.
02:58 River of Light will run until Sunday 5th November.