The Festival will be held from 20 to 22 November and is open to all.  It is one of the highlights of Oxford City Council’s Culture Team and is put on in partnership with Ian Nolan Events on behalf of communities and cultural organisations across the city.
The Christmas Light Festival is an annual event that brings the community together with an exciting programme of art, music, dance and performance. Now in its third year in this three-day format, the Festival is, thanks to funding from The Arts Council, seeing the return of the popular Lantern Procession which winds through the city and ending in Broad Street, which will be closed especially for the event.  There will also be a stage in Gloucester Green providing a performance hub for a wonderful cross section of artists – something for everyone.
The Light Festival’s wide ranging programme of art, music, dance and performance takes place at over 20 of the city’s venues and involves hundreds of people who make this a wonderful event! Many of the city’s best loved venues including its museums, galleries and theatres welcome you to start the festive season with unique late night viewings, exhibitions and inspiring events, most of which are free.  In addition, every year local community groups come together in the spirit of the festive season and create magical events for the Festival. Local artists, dancers, performers and musicians are busily working with many of the venues to create an exciting programme ofevents with this year’s theme of ‘Light and Energy’.
To help some of the more ambitious projects to take place, the Christmas Light Festival offers funding to local groups to help them stage their events.  This year it has awarded a total of £5000 across six local creative groups to produce an exciting and inspiring event for the Festival.  These community and creative groups were invited to apply and the successful applicants are now able to create their innovative projects which will be free for everyone to enjoy over the weekend.
Another exciting project is the series of lantern making workshops in local schools. This year eight of the city’s primary schools, involving  up to 250 children, will be working with a local artist to create lanterns for the parade.  2015 sees them being encouraged to make them from recycled materials during workshops in the schools during October and early November.
Keep an eye on the website and you will then be able to plan your weekend, making sure you do not miss out on any of these spectacular events.