Each year the North welcomes the UK’s largest light festival, produced by London-based creative company Artichoke. Debuting in Durham 2009, the programme features over 40 installations every other year.  With this year set to be extra special with exhibitions, extending beyond the city to Bishop Auckland. The event is a free to attend show and attracts thousands of family and friends, being a notable hotspot for instagram worthy photos. 

Lumiere is arguably one of the best contemporary art exhibitions in the UK open to the public. It not only offers audience participations with interactive exhibitions such as 'On blank pages' (as seen above) but also offers many participative schemes for budding artists to have their work commissioned within the display.

Two participants, Isabelle Milsom and Zara Choudhury, foundation art students from Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form college were lucky enough to have their work displayed within the exhibition as part of the 'Colour the Castle' program, incorporating their own previous photography with their foundation work. We asked both of them to comment on their experience:

‘Having my work displayed on something that so many people would see was really exciting…it felt really surreal that such a big event was using my photography.’ - Isabelle Milsom

'I found the process quite fun!... It was interesting to go through and find which pieces would work the best for what I was going for. I was quite shocked when I found my piece was one of the chosen pieces, I've never really won any competitions, so it made me really happy!' - Zara Choudhury

Overall, each year the Lumiere festival brings light onto the brilliance of the North, showcasing spectacles created by the best of the North. It seems to be that the tradition isn’t fading  away in the shadows any time soon, and is set to shine brighter than ever as it expands its horizons past the North.