Last month, thousands of people (or hundreds of thousands) oozed out on to the streets of central London to eye-witness the London Lumiere Festival 2016.
No doubt this has been the most glamorous event so far in London (when I say glamorous, I mean really glamorous… twinkle twinkle little lights!). The event started from 6.30 PM (can it be AM? duh!) to 10.30 PM on three days Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and it showed how busy and crowded London could be, even though all the streets around where the events were going on were blocked.
On Regent Street, there were two holy fish flying in the sky (well… not the sky-sky, but in the air), and they changed color throughout the night. They were actually two giant kites being controlled by two (or sometimes three) persons standing on the street with a long rope in their hands. The fabric of the kites was amazing. It made the fish look so real in every movement. The fish actually looked like they were swimming in the ocean with buildings as coral or rocks and people walking under them as… well… you imagine! (I say… sand, maybe?)
Walking to the crossroad between Oxford Street and Regent Street, I could see an abstract light hanging above. It changed color too. But the color was not monotone but so unique. There was time I felt like I was flying in the sky looking into the volcano’s hole in the upside down world, and there was time I thought to myself “Wow… what a giant red octopus!”. It just kept surprising me!
However, the master piece of Sunday night, that I would feel sorry if I did not mention here, was the short performance with light in human shapes on the wall above Desigual shop. One word – incredible!!!
It was a story with a plot, with movement controlled by a computer (I guess) which let the light switch on and off so “hit-the-spot” with the music (I call it the… M-spot). People standing on the street seemed to forget the coldness of the night (which dropped to nearly 0 degrees Celsius), and kept cocking their heads up just to take all the performance in. They even laughed, clapped their hands and dropped their jaws (not on the ground, obviously! It was not THAT cold!) each time the story reached its highest notch. Everybody loved it!
London Lumiere Festival 2016 was the one and only event when I always felt OK to shout at people “GO TO THE LIGHT, PEOPLE!!!” and they just smiled at me without feeling scared.. or angry…
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