Bolton set to shine again with announcement of Put Big Light On Festival 2024

The free festival, which is curated by Things That Go On Things, will take place from Thursday 5 to Sunday 8 December. 

The first festival of its kind for the town last year attracted over 50,000 visitors, who came to see the light art trail.  

This year features a huge art installation by NOVAK, which will be YARN: a stunning large-scale projection onto Bolton’s iconic Town Hall, featuring music by Ed Carter.  

This installation will transform the building into a series of captivating scenes filled with vibrant colour, dynamic motion, and immersive sound.  

The artwork honours Bolton’s rich history, tracing its journey from a small rural market town to a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution, transforming working practices across the globe.

It highlights the vibrant production of the town’s mills and the work of its renowned designers, while also showcasing some of Bolton’s most cherished landmarks and its current role as Greater Manchester’s Town of Culture. 

Put Big Light On Festival celebrates Bolton being Greater Manchester’s Town of Culture 2024.  

The year-long Bolton Town Of Culture celebrations see culture and community organisations come together to bring creative, family-friendly art for the borough. 

Commenting on this year’s event, Cllr Nadeem Ayub, Executive Cabinet Member for Culture said:  

“We are delighted to bring back the Put Big Light On Festival this year, especially having won Greater Manchester’s Town of Culture. 

“This event proved to be a highlight of Bolton’s arts and cultural calendar, and it offers a fantastic family-friendly attraction for the winter season.  

“This year’s festival will showcase stunning light installations that invite everyone to explore our town in a new and exciting way. 

“We encourage residents and visitors to join us for this free event and experience the magic of light art.” 

This year’s festival line-up, which will take place across Bolton Town Centre, will feature magical creations from a diverse range of artists, including: 

• GAIA: measuring six metres in diameter, Gaia features 120dpi detailed NASA imagery of the Earth’s surface (compiled from the Visible Earth series) and provides the opportunity to see our planet on this scale, floating in three dimensions. 
• Bright Ideas: Bolton Museum will launch a new exhibition showcasing the fantastic glass neon signs of local company, Neon Creations. The exhibition, which opens on Saturday 30 November, will include some of the company’s most stunning creations as well as specially commissioned pieces.  

One of the new commissions will recreate the large neon sign that once hung outside the Ritzy Night Club in Bolton, and the museum would love to hear from anyone who remembers clubbing at the iconic venue in the 1980s and 1990s.

Tony and Catherine Spink, husband-and-wife cofounders of Neon Creations, say:

“Neon glass bending is on the Heritage Craft Association Red List of Endangered Crafts in the UK, and we are passionate about trying to protect it.

“The exhibition serves as an opportunity to educate people about what neon signs really are, and will look at the history, the science, the process and the uses of neon.  

“We want to share our passion for neon with as many people as possible!”  

The exhibition opens on Saturday 30 November and runs until 23 February 2025. It is in the Museum’s Temporary Exhibition Gallery.   

• The Stars Come Out at Night: a touring illuminated artwork by Stellar Projects in the Studio Theatre at the Octagon Theatre. A striking installation which captures the beauty and wonder of the night sky, bringing a glimmer of starlight right down to earth.  The large, sculptural piece slowly rotates to reveal beautiful star patterns on the surrounding landscape, and when it revolves, internal lighting creates a mesmerising temporary universe of stars which dance across the ground for visitors, capturing the magic of a sky full of stars.
• Luminosi Tree: A large-scale, nature-inspired, immersive installation. Music inspired by the Fibonacci sequence of spiralling growth triggers patterns of light and colour up and around four massive sculptures. The structure looks like a cross between a psychedelic jellyfish and a giant, art-deco parasol.   
• ROCK ON: Things That Go On Things invites the audience to be part of the piece by stepping on stage and unleashing their inner Rock God! Headbanging fun for all the family through the power of posing!
• The Dancing Fountain: Conceived by engineer and kinetic artist, Alexis Richter, The Dancing Fountain visualises sound in liquid form. Using proprietary algorithms, a high-frequency pump and a hand-machined turbine, the Fountain transforms music in real-time into a self-choreographed water dance.  
• Spin Me a Yarn: Created by Studio Vertigo and to be based on Newport Street, this will showcase an oversized ball of yarn with a long trail that interacts with its surrounding area. The illuminated and unusually large-scale yarn forces us to view it in a completely different way, playfully changing the meaning of our relationship to ordinary objects and our environment. 

 There will also be plenty of street entertainment, including: 

• Spark!: The drumming sensations will be performing once again with their new show, featuring local performers, FireFlies.  
• The Lips: A big puppet singalong show, The Lips reanimate our favourite songs, celebrate our shared love of popular music, and uphold our freedom to speak out through a luminous pop-puppetry, lip-sync performance. 
• Show Globes: The Mystic Mirror Globe is a magical world of mirrors that spin and crack open at the press of a button. You can also meet the ornately decorated Snow Queen in the Living Snow Globe, encapsulated within her winter realm.  
• The Living Lamp Posts: An enchanting and illuminating act from Theatre Illumiere standing at over ten feet tall.
• Winter Wonderland Birds: Magical giant birds with stunning fanned tails change colour depending on their mood! 
• eBublio: Bubbles galore! Marvel at the most magical bubble creations and how they glow and interact with the backdrop of the festival’s light displays. 

Visitors can also expect lots of family activities in the run-up to and during the festival. 

For the latest updates, follow on Facebook: Put Big Light On Festival and on Instagram: @PutBigLightOnBolton 

This project is funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.