The con­tain­ers are start­ing to appear on the wharf – the LUX light fes­ti­val is back and opens Fri­day night!

Fes­ti­val direc­tor Mary Laine says they’re explor­ing some new ways of doing things. The fes­ti­val grows big­ger each year so this year they’re exper­i­ment­ing with five dis­tinct themes. By focus­ing five precincts on par­tic­u­lar types of work they’re able to offer a bet­ter expe­ri­ence for the audi­ence. (At least that’s the case this year – they might try some­thing dif­fer­ent next year.)

The five precincts are:

  • The Play­ground precinct is at Frank Kitts park. It’s focused on colour­ful, engag­ing works for kids. It’s a safe envi­ron­ment with games, work­shops and activ­i­ties that will change every night.
  • Te Ao Māra­ma is a bit fur­ther on, around Te Whare­wa­ka o Pōneke/Odlins Plaza. It show­cas­es New Zealand’s Māori artists who work with new and emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies to cre­ate works root­ed in tra­di­tion and cul­ture.
  • Walk­ing back over the City to Sea Bridge towards Civic Square will take you through the Cir­cus. A fam­i­ly friend­ly precinct with wan­der­ing per­form­ers, street food, a pro­jec­tion onto the Town Hall, plus the oppor­tu­ni­ty to light up the Michael Fowler Cen­tre with your own design.
  • Low­er Cuba Street hosts the Urban Edge precinct. Light and sound artists, live glow­ing street art and win­dow art fea­ture here.
  • Final­ly, the Gal­leries precinct is dis­trib­uted through Opera House Lane, Te Aro Park, Eva Street, and Leeds Street. This is a qui­eter art expe­ri­ence with dif­fer­ence pieces spread through the laneways.

There are more details about each precinct includ­ing artists and fea­tured art­works on the LUX web­site. There’s also a map  to help you work out where every­thing is and you can fol­low along with the set­up progress on their Insta­gram.

See you there!