While in Vancouver last weekend, Megan and I went to check out an event called Illuminate Yaletown. Sponsored by the Yaletown Business Improvement Association, the event featured light-as-art installations spread throughout the heritage district. From the website:
Featuring light installations designed and developed by artists and architects, pyrotechnics, fire dancing, cutting edge music, interactive activities and a display of illuminated ice sculptures, Illuminate Yaletown shows off Vancouver’s hippest community in a whole new light!
We were impressed by what we saw! We started with the fire dancing and illuminated ice sculptures, and then made our way to the BMW Mini dealership that had been filled with lights. We saw another display where a video camera on the ground was projected up onto the side of a building. Down a little further were some illuminated windows with silhouettes moving about inside. There were lots of people walking around, taking in the sights!
Illuminate Yaletown was developed to “brighten up a gloomy winter evening” and is the only outdoor event taking place in Vancouver at this time of year. Sound familiar? I immediately thought of Winter Light. This event sounds exactly like the kind of thing you’d expect to be a part of Edmonton’s new winter festival. But it’s not.
The closest thing is Illuminations, taking place on March 21st in Churchill Square. It too will have fire and projected light. The big difference is that it takes place only in Churchill Square. What I really liked about Illuminate Yaletown is that it got people walking around, so they could check out the buildings, shops, and restaurants in the area. It was a great combination of interesting art and community exploration and discovery.
I’m hopeful that next year’s Winter Light festival will include something similar.
You can see the rest of my photos from Illuminate Yaletown here.
MasterMaq's Blog 
Hi – Pamela from Winter Light here. ‘Illuminate Yaletown’ sounds great! And indeed, Winter Light shares many of the same goals. Just wanted to mention a couple of things: Winter Light has now produced events in 9 venues, including one whose site stretched over 2 k of light and performance installations! People are were certainly walking around! Also, our Illuminations will include local buildings and the areas around Churchill Square as sites for light projection etc. So we are new, but very keen to meet the challenges of lighting up winter. Glad you’re posting about us, and hope to see you at one of our events.
Thanks Pamela for the comment! I’ve been out to a bunch of the events this year, including the opening ceremonies which I wrote about. Looking forward to seeing Winter Light grow 🙂
Thank you all for your enthusiasm RE: Illuminate Yaletown. I am a creative contributor for this annual event and we all here at Eos appreciate your comments.
It would be incredible to bring this show to Edmonton. Right now we have a few things in the works to bring this kind of festival a little closer to your home, so keep your eyes pealed for some events that are taking this festival idea on in the coming months (around November).
Please feel free to contact us if you would like any additional information. That BMW Mini Installation was mine personally – at the entrance was a keyboard you could play with, which changes the colours of the cars. We had it also hooked up to the band’s keyboard, so they also changed the colours of the lights!