Lightwaves @ Salford Quays | 18-30s meet new people!

Come and meet our friendly 18-30s community, come with us to Lightwaves. We’ll be meeting at Salford quays to get to know each other and enjoy the festival.

We are a mix of students, young professional, international and local 18-30s in Manchester/Salford. We’re looking to meet new people, make friends and have new experiences.

What is lightwaves? (Taken from https://www.creativetourist.com/event/lightwaves/)

Lightwaves at
MediaCity and Salford Quays, Manchester
5 — 8 December 2024
Entrance is free

This digital light festival, one of the biggest in the UK, has fast become a much-Instagrammed outdoor winter experience and very welcome fiesta to link The Quays‘ public spaces each December. This year it returns with its 10th edition, packed with illuminated works from established as well as emerging artists, local and national.

The event is a way off and so details are a little thin on the ground right now, but you can expect “a variety of different pieces; thought-provoking, surprising and playful”, and if last year’s programme is anything to go by, there’ll be brand new commissions and world premieres involved, a number with interactivity at their core, making Manchester’s waterfront destination sparkle in all senses of the word.

CETUS
Highlights for this year include: a whale shark diving in the waters of the Quays; a tunnel of giant mirrored rings stretching across the piazza at Media City; and the chance to become a pollinating insect moving between giant glowing flowers.

Nectary by Alison Smith
In a world premiere, CETUS is a luminescent artwork in the form of a six-metre long whale, shimmering through the dark waters created by CYGNUS, the creators of a flotilla of 12 floating swans viewers may remember from Lightwaves 2021. On a smaller scale, the gorgeously named The Nectary created by Alison Smith with Dr Chris Hassall is an immersive experience that allows visitors to be enveloped in six hanging luminescent blooms.

Pioneers of outdoor art – Walk the Plank – return to Lightwaves with Fire Garden which includes three brand new giant sculptures – one over nine metres in size. Visitors may remember Roost, from last year, a series of three nature-based interactive fire sculptures.

More details about this year’s programme will be released at the end of November so in the meantime, let’s take a look at some pieces from last year:

2022’s festival started with the eco-conscious work by artist Diane Watson is Gardens of the Deep – a gorgeous display of 100 flowers made from discarded plastic bottles. Matthew Rosier’s Navvies headlined, with a moving work that focused on the role of labourers who constructed the Manchester Ship Canal. The ambitious installation was accompanied by an orchestral composition composed by Hayley Suviste and performed by the BBC Philharmonic.

Once We Were Water by Manchester studio – idontloveyouanymore, takes inspiration from the surrounding waterways. The piece allowed visitors to ‘walk’ through the waters of a digitally recreated river.

Once We Were Water (2022), idontloveyouanymore, Lightwaves
We love the playfulness and the mad mix of cutting edge and popular culture of Lightwaves – where else might you see a digital artwork that responds to and reveals its audience’s emotions alongside a giant heart-shaped mirror ball whilst also bringing attention to the working conditions of the Manchester Ship Canal labourers?

No tickets are required, just turn up and enjoy this free festival to adventure around – aglow with all the good things.

Any qs let us know. See you soon!