Light Night

In the previous post I promised to tell you about the Sudbury Light Night, an event to celebrate the artistic inspiration of the Stour Valley . . .

After two glorious Spring days earlier last week, the weather deteriorated and the forecast for Friday evening was dire . . . wind and heavy rain! Cliff and I went along prepared with waterproofs and umbrellas, luckily the heaviest rain held off for the time we were there but not surprisingly crowds were sparse, which was a shame because there were some intriguing things to see.

We met up with fellow Suffolk blogger, Su, inside St Peter's church; where there was a good selection of paintings and other artwork exhibited. After a few teething problems – and competing with the Market Hill street lighting! – the video projection on the tower got underway (well done to installation artist Jacky Hutson). It was pretty exciting to see some of my images so huge!

We then headed off towards the water meadows behind the Quay Theatre (luckily Su knew the way) further along, the route was lined with lanterns – really pretty – unlike the path which had become a quagmire of slippery mud!

We were just too late to see the painting tableau performance on the river bank opposite the Quay Theatre, so I can't tell you more about that . . . the crowd that were gathered seemed to have enjoyed it.

Onwards, through muddier mud, we walked to the water meadow along the River Stour; the trees illuminated with coloured light looked beautiful.

Lining the edge of the river bank (useful, so we knew when to stop walking!) were coloured lanterns . . . this must have taken ages to set up, but was very very effective.

Su and I couldn't resist poking around inside one of the lanterns to see how they were made – and we found they are amazingly simple to make: a white plastic bag with some holes cut in it, some soil in the bottom to weigh it down, and one of those led party table lights. Please do try this in your garden!

Our favourite thing was the flying swan lantern, attached to a small boat and with human-opperated flapping wings, it 'flew' low over the water of the River Stour . . . beautiful!

Well done to Managing a Masterpiece for conceiving a lovely event. I've put an album of photos on my Facebook Page here, and there is also a video of the projected images on the church tower and the swan.


Afterwards Su joined us for a hearty supper at The Black Lion in Long Melford, tucking our muddy shoes well under the table, we looked as clean and tidy as any of the other diners ;-)

Celia
x