Saturday 21 February 2026
6–9pm
Oldham Town Centre
FREE ENTRY
See Oldham in a New Light
Illuminate Light Night returns to Oldham for its ninth spectacular year, inviting you to experience the town centre transformed after dark by art, light and community celebration.
Inspired by the 2026 theme Ensemble of Light, the festival brings together installations, exhibitions and performances by local, national and international light artists. Explore an illuminated townscape filled with creativity, colour and unexpected moments as Oldham shines like never before.
Illuminate Light Night has become a much-loved annual event. Visitors are invited to follow a trail of striking light artworks, immersive exhibitions and live performances across multiple town centre venues.
It’s a relaxed way to spend time with friends and family and discover incredible light art and performances created by artists from the UK and beyond.
Everything is free, suitable for everyone and the route is fully accessible. Activities run from 6-9pm look at the event map to find our venues and to see the parade route.
Each year Oldham Illuminate delights audiences and 2026 is no exception, just turn up and enjoy!
The Illuminate Parade
A highlight of the evening, the Illuminate Parade begins at 6pm, opening the festival in spectacular style. The parade will wind its way through Oldham town centre from Oldham Civic Centre to the Old Town Hall featuring hundreds of vibrant, community-made lanterns alongside illuminated performers.
Residents who would like to take part can create their own lantern by booking onto free lantern-making sessions at Gallery Oldham.
Book your place HERE
Sentinel
By Studio Vertigo
Sentinel is an immersive light sculpture that balances precision and softness – a sweeping wing-like curve that shifts in perspective, animated by gently moving light.
Its harmonious form is made from straight elements, each one shifting slightly from the next, following a curve that feels virtual rather than solid. A fluid, organic sweep emerges from rigid lines, creating a dynamic harmony: as the viewer moves around the sculpture, it appears to change shape. From one angle it reads as a single sweeping gesture; from another it becomes a fan of luminous lines that seem to open, fold, and turn in space. Step closer and you can pass beneath the arc, where the structure feels less like a fixed object and more like a moment caught mid-motion. The shifting light intensifies this effect: colour and brightness travel through the sculpture in a gentle, continuous flow, so the work is always subtly changing. It becomes a simple reflection of life: not one single state, but something always in the process of becoming.
Like a wing held open, the sculpture creates a space you can step into. Sentinel offers a moment of attention – a small pause in the street, when you stop rushing and simply notice.
Illumaphonium
By Illumaphonium
“illumaphonium is a dynamic and interactive, multi sensory, music making installation – the first of its kind”.
The pioneers of interactive light and sound works illumaphonium bring to you their very first installation, also called illumaphonium. A name so good they named the company after it!
Created by musician and inventor Michael Davis, the semi acoustic, semi automatic, multi-player musical sculpture stands over three and a half metres tall and consists of more than a hundred hand tuned and illuminated chime bars. Each bar responds to touch with ever changing patterns of light and sound, spreading out like waves over the giant instruments surface, bringing people together into a fun and spontaneous music making experience.
2026 marks the tenth year this incredible creation has been touring. Enjoyed by audiences of over 7 million all around the globe, illumaphonium invites Oldham to come and play!
www.illumaphonium.co.uk
The Relic of Mirchwood Forest
Lead Artist: Laura Spark
Sound design by Jonathan Hering
Here reside the last living ferns of Mirchwood; an ancient mythical forest driven to extinction purely by being forgotten. As its stories stopped being told, its trees vanished one by one. Now all that remains is protected in an enchanted terrarium, a living shrine to the primordial wisdom of plant life.
Artist Laura Spark uses hand crafted models and stop motion animation to create this mythic ecosystem, bearing a message of hope and survival from another realm. The Relic acts as both a celebration and a warning – to never take nature’s irreplaceable magic for granted.
Eternal Ensemble
By ONYVA! Studio – Scott Parkin & Andrew J Brown
Cellist: Aileen Williams
Video production: VTR North
Eternal Ensemble is a work of spatial audio and immersive projection that suspends the viewer in a repeated moment in time. The repetition of both performer and performance makes for a powerful connection between cellist and listener, creating a moment of joy that feels utterly personal, yet wholly shared.
Onyva Studio is a UK based creative studio that works with video, sound, interactive technologies and image making to create emotive experiences that stir the soul. We use music and video to create immersive sensory spaces that feel both alien and instantly familiar.
@onyva.studio
Strands
By Florence
Strands is a new collaborative light and sound installation inspired by Greater Manchester’s textile heritage, led by Venture Arts, Things That Go On Things, Vicky Clarke, Jonny Godsmark, and Lazerian.
The project centres around learning-disabled textile artist Florence, whose work explores the concept of ‘home’. Florence collaborated with sound artist Vicky Clarke to learn sound recording techniques for this installation, and the soundscape features field recordings of Florence creating the piece as well as sounds collected from the workshops and some of Florence’s vocals.
Florence also collaborated with Jonny Godsmark who led a series of workshops with Venture Arts young people to create the internal lights for the houses. Lazerian fabricated the houses and Florence led community workshops in Wigan and Oldham, where participants created their own fabric ‘homes’ to be integrated into the final installation.
In Oldham, the team worked with Shared Health Foundation and families in temporary accommodation to explore the theme of ‘what home means to them’ adding an extra level of meaning to the work.
This work was funded by GMCA’s Collaborate Fund
@venturearts_ @thingsthatgoonthings @sonamb_ @jonnygodsmark @lazerian_studio
Things That Light Up
By Things That Go On Things & Chris Ball
Things That Light Up is a new artwork by Things That Go On Things and creative technologist Chris Ball. This piece is housed in 130 recycled plastic bottles and is site-responsive, the colours and patterns chosen especially for the setting to set a relaxed atmosphere to guide you on your way. The work has been created to try and combat how many disposable lights are used in light artworks, and this installation can be recharged and reused time and time again, and will look different in each location.
With huge thanks to our supporters: Encounter Festival, Light Up Lancaster, Light Up Leigh, Light Night Wigan, Illuminate Oldham, Sale Waterside and the Growth Company.
@thingsthatgoonthings @chrisballprojects
POLAR
By Gemma Wood
POLAR celebrates the majesty and scale of the polar bear as it slips onto the ‘vulnerable to extinction’ list. Life-sized sculptures lit with LEDs. The pieces of accompanying ice act as a time capsule of frozen promises, moving poetry and famous speeches, whilst illustrating the micro-plastics and fishing paraphernalia that are locked into the eco system. Made with recycled materials and EcoPoxy resin it strives to be as sustainable as possible.
A dance of bee and bird – A Churning of the Ocean
By Illuminos
Join us for a unique projection artwork in a story of the Indian Roller Bird and the Queen Honey Bee. Drawing inspiration from traditional Hindu narratives and the significance of the worker bee to our region, reflecting the Global Grooves ‘Worker becomes Queen’ project, the town hall comes alive in blues, purples and yellows, a dance of bird and bee, as the fable of the immortal nectar plays out.
Long ago when the world was new, Gods and Demons came together to Churn the Cosmic Ocean – to search for the Nectar of Immortality. But as stars and galaxies spiralled, before the divine nectar appeared, the churning created a terrible poison that might consume the world.
Up flew the Roller Bird, brave and strong. It opened its wings and consumed the deadly poison, its throat turning bright blue from the effort – saving the universe. The bees were tasked with collecting the nectar, and spreading its bounty across the world.
Eons passed. Blue Throat nested, raising new roller bird eggs in the safety of the hollow trees. Bees buzzed all around, ruled by their queen Yellow Back, gathering the precious nectar drawn from the churn of the ocean. But the buzz of the bees was not the only buzz, as under the chainsaw trees began to fall. The precious roller bird eggs would be dashed forever. The cry of Blue Throat reverberated through the forest.
Up flew the Queen Bee, gracious and proud. She summoned her workers to her, like the cotton queens and suffragettes, determined to resist, and in a magical dance of Morris and Garba, Ballon de Baston, yellow and black, purple and green, they caught the falling eggs, buoying them up on a million wings to safety. Blue throat bowed to the queen, promising to repay the debt.
Eons passed. The bees continued their tireless work, collecting the immortal nectar, making the honey for all to share. Their toil reflected the industrial toil that grew up all around the moorland heathers. But the glow of the honey was not the only glow, as a great fire spread up and out, threatening to consume every flower and Yellow Back’s precious hive. The cry of Yellow Back reverberated through the moors.
Up flew the roller birds. Blue Throat had remembered. High in the sky she and her children soared, rolling and spiralling with such power that the wind was churned in great spirals, blowing out and away the deadly flames, bringing calm to the world once more. Yellow Back bowed to Blue Throat, for the debt was paid. As the flowers returned and the moorland blossomed, the worker bees harvested the immortal nectar once more, a harmony of colours.
@illuminosvales
Colour Rush
By Liz West
Co-commissioned by Canary Wharf Winter Lights, Illuminate Oldham
and Light Night Wigan
Colour Rush stands as a bold and vibrant light beacon that showcases intricate colour relationships, juxtapositions and patterns. This spatial drawing began with a recent ink study as its foundation and colour palette. Like a kaleidoscope, this playful piece demands exploration, urging visitors to view their reflections merging with the artwork. The convergence of colours acts as a physical and metaphorical meeting point for people.
@LizWestStudio
Love Oldham
Co – created with Blackpool Illuminations
Putting it in words, showing how much we love Oldham.
Happy as the Day is Long
By Stellar Creates
Happy as the Day is Long is a breathtaking larger-than-life mirrorball which will transform the Red Swing Bridge into an enchanting environment. Made from a kaleidoscope of brightly coloured mirrored pieces, thousands of shimmering reflections will dance across the surroundings as it turns, creating a mesmerising atmosphere that will captivate audiences of all ages.
The artwork sets the stage for a pop-up silent disco where you can grab a pair of headphones and immerse yourself in the uplifting energy of the Lightwaves Happy playlist – curated by the local community and guaranteed to lift your spirits!
Happy as the Day is Long invites you to explore the beauty of light in motion and the joyful power of music.
Co-commissioned by Barnsley Bright Nights, with support from Tees Valley Combined Authority.
Become a Virtual DJ
Oldham residents are invited to help shape the soundtrack by nominating songs that bring them joy. Selected tracks will form a community-created Happy Playlist, played throughout the silent disco during the event. Nominate your song HERE
Instagram: @stellar_creates_events
Facebook: @StellarCreatesEvents
Hero Shot Frame
By SLX
Picture Yourself in a frame and take the shot.
Light Painting
By Tim Simpson
Hugely successful Light Painting Workshops return by popular demand. Play with light sources and paint a stunning piece of art in the dark.
Light Up Art and Crafts
By Oldham Play Action Group
Come and create your very own bright light-up, crafty artworks.
Gallery Exhibitions
Don’t miss the wonderful exhibitions at Gallery Oldham including
Oldham Stories
Oldham Stories features selected objects from our extensive collections to tell and show the stories of Oldham and its local and natural communities.
Women Portraits: Trades and Professions by Charlotte Hodes
This exhibition, by Charlotte Hodes, is engaged with the representation of trades and professions. It focuses on the contributions made by women from Oldham and Manchester regions from the late 1800s, a period of increasing demand for equal rights for women, through to the present day.
Connecting Threads 2 by Lynn Setterington
Lynn Setterington is an ethnographic embroiderer who engages with the world through stitch. Lynn has worked with communities worldwide and she combines popular culture, folk art and the everyday to make extraordinary artworks that celebrate what it means to be human.
150 Years of Oldham Rugby League Football Club
The Oldham Rugby League Heritage Trust is pleased to present an exhibition in collaboration with Gallery Oldham to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Oldham RLFC. Acknowledged as one of the finest collections of rugby memorabilia in the world, the displays will feature shirts, caps, medals, photographs programmes and much more.
Pop Up Performances – High Street
- 18:00 Star Bears
- 18:45 Roller Bird
- 19.00 Dancing Diyas | Owl
- 19.15 Ollie & Millie | Star Bears | Saddleworth Women’s Morris & Clog
- 19:30 Jubacana – GALLERY OLDHAM
- 20:00 Owl | Dancing Diyas | Hare
- 20.30 Saddleworth Morris & Clog | Star bears | Ollie & Mille
ILLUMINATE MAP
Would you like to take part in Illuminate 2027?
We’re always happy to talk to light artists and potential festival partners. If you would like to discuss a project for Illuminate, please get in touch with Culture.team@oldham.gov.uk
