Lightscape on the winter solstice 2024

24 Jun Lightscape on the winter solstice 2024

Yay! My friend just messaged me to say I could publish some of his photos on my website/instagram, so I have something to keep me occupied for a little more time before bed now! Yay!

On Friday I went with some friends to Lightscape in the Botanical Gardens (Melbourne). I was so excited about this because it was winter solstice and I do love to celebrate that evening every year. We rugged up and made the journey to meet at the Observatory in front of the entrance to Lightscape. It was a very chilly and festive start to the evening. And we were in good spirits after a hectic Friday at work for some of us.

From there we started our journey through the wandering path of light installations of Lightscape 2024. It would be remiss not to mention the Indigenous contributions to the festival this year. A beautiful array of colourful, kaleidoscopic circles welcomed us to the exhibition with the words Wominjeka lit up behind them.

Lightscape in previous years

This is the third time that I have been to this exhibition, which has been running for at least three years now.. The first time I went to this festival may have been just after covid, but due to the weird time warp of that covid era I can’t be sure if it was before or after covid.

The first installment had lots of actual FIRE. We would walk through fire sculptures, and there were fire installations on the water bodies within the gardens. We followed a trail of fire sculptures up a hill to a view of the city.

Thiis time the path was different and took a different route. I didn’t really get a good sense of where exactly we were in the gardens. I was too busy talking to my friends and being mesmerised by the light sculptures, perhaps. It was a wonderful journey though. And it was so lovely to get really absorbed in my senses in the darkness to experience all the beautiful installations. We really enjoyed the different soundscapes that were exhibited with the light sculptures too!

Many of the pictures in the gallery below were taken by my friend Athol. His phone camera has some kind of special powers!! Haha. There is also one that my friend Paris took of the pink tree that she loved so much.