Don’t miss Lumiere London a spectacular traffic-stopping free festival of light art around central London!

At the swanky press launch yesterday (18 Jan) festival director Helen Marriage said that Lumiere London would get us ‘away from the screen’…

Sadly this wasn’t quite backed up by reality, as everyone we saw looking at Lumiere’s delights last night was frantically snapping and adding to their own Instalife! But good on them adding a bit of creative camera work to their lives…

Some of the events were not quite ready yet, including Tracey Emin’s work at St James’s Piccadilly, and also the bubble on Oxford Circus wasn’t exactly what the publicity image suggested.

Nevertheless, Lumiere London is a great excuse to stay above ground and on foot in central London, with surprises dotted around Soho and beyond – and it feels so good to be able to walk right down the middle of Regent Street!

Lumiere London | West End, Mayfair, Kings Cross, South Bank | 18-21 January 2018 | 17:30-22:30 | Free

View the map here

3 Artworks We Loved!

Flamingo Flyway by Lantern Company with Jo Pocock | Chinatown (we caught them just behind W hotel)

A bonkers puppet palava of pink flamingos in Chinatown – one swooped in for the kill, but we survived!

The Wave by Vertigo | Riverside Walk South Bank – Near IBM building

The most incredible thing we saw in our outing at Lumiere London – reminiscent of similar light installations we’ve seen elsewhere, but done better!

Echelle by Ron Haselden | St-Martins-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square

A stairway to heaven in a truly mind-bending position. Bet you can’t figure out where this is from the photo – but head along to Trafalgar Square and take a look around…

3 Things We Want To Visit In The Wider Festival

Waterlicht by Daan Roosegaarde | Granary Square, Kings Cross

Patrice Warrener: The Light of the Spirit (Chapter 2) | Westminster Abbey

Northern Lights by Aleksandra Stratimirovic | Grosvenor Square, Victoria

However, the true magic of Lumiere London for us was…

Braving the cold to see London through a different lens – more than just a work place and commuter hell…

Rupert Dannreuther

I am Joint Editor at To Do List. I like free, cheap & offbeat London, especially: cabaret, art, theatre, pop-ups, eating out, quirky films, museums, day trips, social enterprise & much more.

www.omglondon.com