Liverpool LightNight
Liverpool LightNight is now less than a week away - and arts organisations and historic city sites are making final preparations before throwing open their doors for the after hours extravaganza.
Dozens of events and activities are being staged for this year's event, which takes place next Friday from 5pm.
LightNight is organised by Open Culture and sponsored by organisations including Liverpool John Moores University, which has its own series of festival events planned.
Find out what is happening by visiting the website www.lightnightliverpool.co.uk or pick up a copy of the LightNight festival guide - they're £3 and the money goes towards staging the festival.
Meanwhile, here are just a few ideas of things to see and do on May 19.
City Centre
Paperwork Theatre is behind the Pedal Players (Credit AB Photography)
Typhoon and the Pedal Players
City centre – 5-9pm.
Their time machine is broken and the Pedal Players are stuck in a time continuum; cycling around in circles for centuries, telling the same stories for years.
Catch them as they journey from Paradise Street (near John Lewis) and along Manesty’s Lane, Peter’s Lane and the Bluecoat Courtyard.
Fancy a Selfie?
Bluecoat – 5-9pm.
Join artists from Blue Room, Bluecoat’s inclusive arts programme, as they take you on a fancy dress journey through time.
Create your own accessories and props in a drop-in costume workshop, or take a shortcut and use the pre-made props and costumes, then visit the photo booth or one of the selfie stations to capture and share your moment in the Bluecoat time portal.
St George’s Quarter
LightNight at Central Library
William Brown Street – 5-11pm
Head to Central Library for a host of LightNight activities and events.
A packed evening includes a live audio-visual set by Sandi Hughes and Re-Dock, spoken word artistry from Writing on the Wall, a 10-year retrospective from North End Writers and a workshop from Brouhaha plus special performances from Southport Strings, In Harmony, The Holy Ground, Black Entrails and more.
There will also be a barbecue on the café terrace.
Duuome 360
St George’s Hall - 5-11pm
Audio-visual collective MorestateLab presents its latest project based on a geodesic dome structure.
The dome, covered with projection mapping and digital LED strips, creates a mesmerising sequence of sound and visuals, controlled from the inside by two artists in real time.
Walk around inside the dome, which will be in the Concert Room, and experience the installation as it happens.
Here Be Dragons
Steble Fountain, William Brown Street – 8.45-10.15pm
The two 30-minute lantern shows by Headstrong Puppets start at 8.45pm and 9.45pm.
A group of mysterious hooded figures make their way through the crowds, accompanied by two huge dragons. Out of place and out of time, they bring messages from the past…but do we have the ears to hear them in our modern world?
Headstrung Puppets are a Liverpool-based company specialising in interactive street theatre, walkabout and puppet cabaret.
Hope Street
Rotation Eighteen269
Metropolitan Cathedral – 6.30-9.30pm.
An amazing 18,269 days since it’s consecration, see the interior of the Metropolitan Cathedral in a new light as new media artist Andy McKeown returns to LightNight to present a new large-scale light performance in collaboration with the Metropolitan Cathedral Choir.
Taking inspiration from the cathedral’s architectural features, in particular the Lantern Tower, light will be projected within the building itself while the choir presents a rare live performance of Thomas Tallis’ Lamentations alongside organ music by Olivier Messaien and Arvo Part, performed by Matthew Searles.
Performances at 7pm, 7.45pm and 8.30pm.
The Super Sonic Assembly
Liverpool Cathedral
The Super Sonic Assembly bridges past, present and future through song and dance, showcasing the evolution of music since World War II.
This fun, interactive family event features choirs, community participation and a DJ set of great music (from then and now) by Greg Wilson.
Choirs and Rev Cleve Freckleton - 6.45-8.30pm
DJ Greg Wilson – 8.45-11pm
Waterfront
Fanny & George’s Georgian Liverpool
Merseyside Maritime Museum – 5.30-9pm.
Join Fanny and George for a poke around Georgian Liverpool and discover death, disease and docks plus a few beauty secrets that will make your hair curl.
With tales of smuggling, ‘oyster selling’, and a good old fashioned day out at the hanging, this performance is not for the faint-hearted, or for under 10s.
Same As We Ever Were
Albert Dock – 5-8pm
Community performers join MDI (Merseyside Dance Initiative) on a dance time trail through the dock as they attempt to stop time in place.
Everyone has those special places to which they return repeatedly throughout their life – a holiday village, a local park. For whatever reason these places draw us back to a time we want to experience again and again.
The performances at 5pm and 7pm start from the Daniel Adamson ship before moving to the Dr Martin Luther King Jr. building, Merseyside Maritime Museum and Mermaid Courtyard.
Tour the Danny
Daniel Adamson, Canning Dock – 5-8pm.
Here’s a chance to stop on board the 1903 steam ship which was saved from being scrapped, and restored with the help of Heritage Lottery funding.
The ‘Danny’ is a National Historic Ship, and will be open for free guided tours of its luxury Art Deco interior.
Ropewalks and Chinatown
Light Field
Ropewalks Square – 9-11pm
Light Field, a collaboration between sound artist Bill Thompson and dance artist Saffy Setohy, is an evolving, inter-related constellation of people, light, sound and movement.
Light Field invites people to both become and activate the installation.
Visually captivating, with a subtle sound score made of the sound of light and Natural Radio, this work considers light, darkness and energy within the ebb and flow of people in the Light Field microcosm.
Liverpool Drift Club
Chinese Arch – 7-10pm
Join the LightNight ‘drift walk’ – billed as a playful walk without destination.
People taking part put on headphones and listen to a synchronised soundtrack, taking it in turns to lead the walk but not knowing where they will end up or what they will experience along the way.
You are free to leave the drift when you want. All you need is a smartphone or MP3 and headphones. Sign up to take part via facebook.com/gizzago
Baltic Triangle
LJMU Screen School Candle-lit Labyrinth
Cains Brewery Village, 5 Mann Street – 5-11pm
It wouldn’t be Liverpool LightNight without a labyrinth.
Head for Cains to step in to a mindful candle-lit labyrinth walk set within the expansive space of Solstice.
The piece is created by artist Alex Irving, supported by LJMU Screen School and has a choral and meditative soundtrack.
In Another Time
3 Brick Street – 5-10.30pm
This POTO Studios exhibition is both factual and a creative fantasy which looks at Liverpool ‘In Another Time.
See historic photography and architectural recreations of Liverpool scenes from the past, as well as superheroes’ true history of the city and the illustrative evolution of some of Liverpool’s most famous characters through time.
Artists will be present on the evening.
Soundtrack of Our Lives
22 Jordan Street – 5-11pm
Music has the power to transport the listener back to a specific time and place…like an audio time machine.
This event invites visitors to take part in an installation and share their memories of personal tracks (and where in the world they take them) to create a map of musical memories and a co-curated playlist.