Promising an “awe-inspiring anniversary trail celebrating the power of community and collaboration,” it has grown significantly over the years but has always retained its identity, absolutely rooted in the venue itself while also celebrating togetherness.
GLOW WILD producer Louise Burton said: “It still feels very, very special and we have just been building and building over the years. Ten years ago we had four nights and maybe just a few thousand people but now it is 31 nights all over Christmas and maybe 90,000 people. It feels really significant.
GLOW WILD producer Louise Burton said: “It still feels very, very special and we have just been building and building over the years. Ten years ago we had four nights and maybe just a few thousand people but now it is 31 nights all over Christmas and maybe 90,000 people. It feels really significant.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers, and now
00:06 we know that Christmas is definitely coming because Glow Wild is back at Kew Wakehurst,
00:11 and it's one of the UK's biggest art installations, obviously outdoor, and it's fabulous, isn't
00:17 it? Lovely to speak to Louise Burton, who is the Glow Wild producer. What makes it so
00:23 special? It must be so exciting, just about to launch into it again.
00:27 Yeah, you've come to us on day one of the rig, so literally we're about to start putting
00:33 our backbone of the trail in, our base layer of lanterns. And these are all handmade,
00:40 handcrafted throughout the year by teams of volunteers and various partners who just work
00:47 throughout the year. And lovely memories of summertime, people sitting out chatting,
00:51 making lanterns. And those all form our base layer, as I say, and then all the layers of
00:57 artworks go in on top of that. So it's just really exciting to see all that year's work
01:01 come to fruition, and with so much community effort around it.
01:05 And the lovely thing, as you were saying, is that there's heart and soul in this,
01:08 and the visitors really feel that, don't they?
01:09 Absolutely, yeah.
01:10 It's to you, and it therefore matters to us, doesn't it?
01:13 Absolutely, and there is so much heart and soul that goes into it from that community
01:17 aspect, but through the love and care that's put together in curating this. So we put together
01:24 a brief, which is very much nature-based, because everything at Wakehurst and Kew,
01:28 of course, is synonymous with nature. So our brief to our artists that we worked with this
01:33 year was all about awe and wonder in nature, and asking them for their response to that brief.
01:42 So yeah, we've got some fabulous responses in, and some amazing artworks that have come
01:47 in on the back of that, and it just makes it feel very, very bespoke to our landscape.
01:53 And it's been a fabulous trajectory from when you first started. You were saying four days,
01:57 just a few thousand visitors. Now it's more than 30 days over Christmas with 90,000 visitors.
02:03 That's staggering, isn't it?
02:04 We hope to reach that many, yes. I mean, it's certainly... but I have to say,
02:07 it never feels sort of overly packed and busy. It has a very, very special, gentle, magical feel
02:13 to it, because, you know, we're quite spread out over the trail, and we've got the staggered entry,
02:17 so it never feels sort of cluttered. And for us, it's really important to deliver that really sort
02:22 of special Christmas memory of families together, because a lot of what we do is, as we said at the
02:31 beginning, you know, from the heart, it's come from a community-type feel. And I think we were
02:35 chatting before, and it's very important that what we want to achieve is the families coming to
02:40 Glowwild have that sense of togetherness, that special memory formed when they're doing something.
02:45 And that community is crucial. Togetherness, community in nature, is just the perfect way
02:49 to end the year, isn't it?
02:51 Yeah, yeah, definitely.
02:52 And then you start again.
02:53 And then we start again. On January the 2nd, we start again. So we've got a two and a half
03:01 week stint now ahead of us in all weathers to get things ready. But we're paced, and we've got sort
03:07 of, you know, the crew all lined up. Everything goes into place, ready for opening night.
03:11 And you've got a fabulous background behind you. That's lovely.
03:14 Yeah, so this spiral of wires, this spaghetti of wires, will be out in the landscape,
03:18 believe it or not, it is perfectly ordered, it's numbered. We know how many of these little lights
03:23 go in each lantern, and what colour they are. And so over the coming week, we're beginning to put
03:29 those in place.
03:29 That's it. Well, good luck with everything. Really lovely to speak to you.
03:33 Thank you.
03:33 Thank you ever so much.
03:34 You too. Bye.