Enfield Winter Lights

Enfield Winter Lights was an inaugural borough wide light festival, delivered throughout February and March 2022 through a series of unexpected and playful light installations across four town centres (Angel Edmonton, Enfield Town, Palmers Green and Southgate) in the London Borough of Enfield.

Hive was commissioned to deliver the festival and worked in partnership with Enfield Council. The aim of the festival was to bring together artists, local businesses and the wider community, with spectacular light artworks designed to celebrate the heritage of Enfield with colour, creativity and innovation.

Festival highlights include six prominent UK based artists who were commissioned to deliver site-specific takeovers in each of the town centres. We had a mesmerising light projection by Claire Luxton who transformed two iconic architectural landmarks and a touring pink shipping container designed by Eve De Haan who created an immersive neon light experience promoting positivity. A 12m wide luminescent sculpture promoting unity and connection by local artist Mark Beattie also took centre stage Library Green in Enfield Town. A series of light portraits titled “Let there be Light” were installed in the windows of Fore Street Library by local rising talent King Owusu, shining a spotlight on residents of Upper Edmonton, working with local group REACT and Platinum Academy. Lauren Baker created a site specific light sculpture focusing on the significance of the Suffragette movement and female power at a local landmark Palmers Green Triangle, and local artist Dan Maier delivered site specific installations in the window of the Southgate Club and the Southgate London Underground station, combining colour and architectural elements from each of the landmarks.

Hive worked with 22 artists and delivered over 30 events throughout the 2 month programme with some of the artworks remaining within the public realm as a legacy of the project. One of the main aims of the festival was to increase footfall to our high streets post-pandemic and we were pleased with the positive date shown from in our impact report.

Public reaction to the festival was overwhelmingly positive and there was a clear appetite from the community to get involved with all the scheduled workshops selling out within two days of going live. Local businesses were also keen to participate with a number of satellite events being organised throughout the two month period. As a result we designed a ‘festival guide’ section of the website to promote local businesses participating and within walking distance from different illuminations, hoping to encourage footfall around the borough. Some local businesses noted a 25% increase in trade on evenings that events took place near them.

Some comments captured during the festival were “so brilliant that this is right on our doorstep”, and that it is “amazing to have some positive light in Enfield at the moment”.

We had almost 3,000 people take a seat on the swing in Eve De Haan’s pink shipping container and estimate the overall reach of the festival was 65,000+ and counting.

The project was supported by The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) Welcome Back Fund, established through a grant from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).