Island Light Festival ’22: A Wider World

Hosted by ARTiculate, this two-week illuminated community festival brings light and warmth to the darkest time of year on the Isles of Scilly.

Since 2012 ARTiculate artists have worked with the Isles of Scilly community and the Five Islands Academy to plan and realise a biennial ‘Island Light Festival’: an exciting, two-week arts festival culminating in a magical processive event, specifically timed to illuminate one of the darkest times of the year on the Islands, and created in close collaboration with the whole Island community.

We are delighted that our sixth Island Light Festival 2022: ‘A Wider World’ is supported by Arts Council England and FEAST, along with the Five Islands Academy, The Edward McDonald Trust, Isles of Scilly Steamship Company, IOS Chaplaincy, St Mary’s Library, IOS Police and Islands’ Partnership.

This year’s festival theme springs directly from our ‘Words On The Wing’ lockdown project, also supported by Arts Council England and FEAST, which helped connect and inspire Islanders and mainlanders alike via the creation and sharing of ‘migratory’ bird-themed arts and poetry during COVID. It also celebrates how the migration of birds – and people – to the Isles and beyond, along with their stories and their cultures, can transcend imagined boundaries and help enrich & reconnect us all in dark times. New too is the added magic of music workshops & sessions with associate artists, ‘Wilderness’.

Week 1 of our residency forms the core of the Five Islands Academy’s February Project Week, with host of creative activities across the school to complement the planned curricular activity and with a celebratory in-school event on Friday 18th; while a further full week of free, open creative making and musical community workshops in Week 2 culminates in a processive illuminated and musical event through the streets of Hugh Town, bringing everyone together in shared celebration on Saturday February 26th.

Full details and listings of all our workshops, activities and events will be available from mid January 2022 on our website at www.articulatecollective.com, and on our Facebook page.