Light up your life

By Bree Harding

May 2, 2023

Captivated: Lights paint the sky on Welsford St for last year’s White Night in Shepparton.

I’ve long been convinced there are insects in my ancestry because of my predisposition to be distracted by light.

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In fact, if I’m ever in that limbo between life and death and I see that fabled light those who’ve come back from the brink have reported, I’m almost certain I’ll gravitate straight towards that alluring temptress, ignoring any voices urging me to wake up, and that will be my time done.

The new colour-changing lights around the lake have me endlessly mesmerised and I adore the fairy lights adorning the trees in our CBD, so much so I’ve taken drives after dark for no other reason than just to see them illuminated (and if I’m honest, almost accidentally run red lights because of the distraction).

So it’s probably far safer when these installations are part of a festival that is to be walked through, rather than driven through!

Light festivals have been popping up left, right and centre in towns and cities, small or large.

Tree change: Bendigo’s Rosalind Park was illuminated with many different colours during it's Glow festival last year.

The first I ever found myself at was completely by accident. I just happened to be in Melbourne visiting a friend six years or so ago when we found ourselves wandering home through epic moving light exhibits.

Fast forward a few years and we had our very own captivating White Night event here in Shepparton.

I’d never seen that many people on our streets at night-time in the cold of winter.

It was popular for several good reasons.

You can paint with light, make it dance, tell stories with it.

Glowed up: Bendigo’s Glow festival had a neon face-painting session.

The things you can do with light are never-ending, you just need imagination (and of course, the technical skills to translate those internal visions into real-life visuals).

Besides the art of light, the event was probably well patronised because it was free to attend; a rarity these days, but gratefully welcomed by parents looking for affordable family activities on weekends.

We live close to the CBD, so other elements I enjoyed about White Night were being able to get some exercise and a large dose of fresh (yet wintry crisp) air walking to and from (and then all around) the festival from our home.

Shimmering: Light was incorporated with digital imagery and water within the grounds of Aquamoves at last year’s White Night event in Shepparton.

The enormous crowd, however, did make it difficult to keep eyes on everyone in our party and quite agonising to round them all up for food (given lines at food trucks were all longer than a B-double themselves).

A month or so later during the winter school holidays, we took a trip to Bendigo for the Harlem Globetrotters and Washington Generals’ spread game at Red Energy Arena.

Being winter it got dark not long after the Sunday afternoon game finished, so we took the opportunity to wander through another light festival — Glow — in Rosalind Park before heading home.

Light in the dark: Bendigo’s Glow festival was a great success in Rosalind Park.

This one wasn’t free and wasn’t as big, but also had us hypnotised into bug-eyed, drop-jawed, light-loving fans. The word magical is probably the most apt adjective to describe such spectacles.

There’s a warm romantic atmosphere to the cold night sky when it’s lit up by pretty lights, just like the effect of fireworks and glowing fairgrounds after dark.

Now that daylight savings is over and the sky is growing dark early in the evenings again, light festival season has kicked off.

And lucky for us, there’s one in Shepp this weekend.

It’s called Illuminate and unlike White Night last year, this one is across two nights (Friday and Saturday), so hopefully that helps keep crowds to more manageable sizes and reduces food truck lines to single trailer lengths!

Without darkness we can’t appreciate light and without light, we wouldn’t be able to appreciate light festivals.

If you’re looking for something free and awe-inspiring to do this weekend, cross your fingers for good weather, then make like ‘my ancestors’ and fly towards the light.