Explore Wakefield City Centre in a whole new light with the return of the Light Up Trail. From Friday 13 - Saturday 14 November, discover light installations across the city centre, from interactive artworks and striking projections to joyful illuminated experiences.
Light Up Trail
Discover Wakefield City Centre in a whole new light with the return of the Light Up Trail!
From Friday 13 – Saturday 14 November, explore light installations across the city centre, from interactive artworks and striking projections to joyful illuminated experiences.
Twist & Shine by Kaleider
Twist & Shine is a beautiful landscape of interactive light sculptures. They are made out of interconnected prisms that can be twisted into thousands of different shapes.
Every time someone changes the sculpture, they inherit their starting point from the people before them. By transforming the shape, they change the landscape and add to the sculpture’s story.
Members of the public can work together, or witness others playing.
Credits: Twist & Shine is commissioned by RHS Bridgewater for Glow 2023, and in 2025 by Lux Helsinki. It is a development of Let’s Twist, a commission by Rotherham, Children’s Capital of Culture.
The Heat Beneath Our Feet by Lynn Wray and Rebecca Smith
Journey through geological time and discover the hidden world beneath our city. Step into a dynamic floor projection that reveals the changing textures and glowing pathways of the subsurface, tracing the movement of heat and water through ancient rock formations.
As the geological layers shift across space and time, they reveal how natural interactions between rock, water, heat and a new shallow geothermal network could warm and cool homes and public buildings across West Yorkshire. The evolving visuals are accompanied by sonic interpretations of seismic data, subtle underground vibrations and musical harmonies to create an immersive audiovisual experience evoking the rhythms of the Earth’s interior.
Credits: This installation was produced by the Cultural Institute, University of Leeds. Funded by the University of Leeds Climate Plan through Sustainability Services Living Lab Programme. This event is part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2025 and was made possible thanks to funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), which is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Part of ‘Stories from the Subsurface’ and ‘Geothermal Campus and City’ projects, funded by Geosolutions Leeds.
12 Giant Days by Illuminos
12 Giant gifts have been sent to Wakefield! In this larger than life retelling of the traditional Christmas Carol, a huge circle of presents reveal their cargo. Like a gigantic spinning zoetrope, partridge, geese, swans, gold rings and drummers appear in turn, oversized characters that tumble from one gift to the next, unable to be contained in their giant boxes.
In the circle of Wakefield’s Bull Ring, come and discover the 12 Giant Days in this bigger than ever projection installation from Illuminos.
The Bull Ring, Wakefield
Wakefield WF1 1HA, UK
Continuum by illumaphonium
Continuum’ is a fun, captivating installation that invites visitors to walk between mirrored monoliths, exploring a maze of reflection and light. This interactive piece will capture the imagination of all ages as they walk around, through and amongst the mirrored pillars.
Cathedral Steps, Wakefield
Northgate, Wakefield WF1 1HG, UK
Rewild by Limbic Cinema
Rewild is a magical, illuminated projection-mapped animation that invites audiences to become part of the artwork. Playful gestures trigger swarms of butterflies and insects, sparking further growth and transformation across the scene.
Individuals and small groups see themselves projected in real time onto the building, alongside an evolving landscape populated by keystone species such as lynx and bison.
The experience encourages positive human action and a more harmonious relationship with nature, opening conversations about how we can restore, rebalance and regenerate our natural ecosystems and imagine a future where humans and nature can thrive together.
County Hall, Wakefield
County Hall, Bond St, Wakefield WF1 2QW, UK
Distant: Shared Memories of Home by Seiko Kinoshita
Coinciding with Wakefield’s 2026 Light Up weekend, Japanese-born, Sheffield artist Seiko Kinoshita will prototype Distant: Shared Memories of Home, an experimental installation that merges hand-crafted sculpture forms with cutting-edge technology.
Using folded paper, textiles, mixed reality, and spatial audio, the project creates an atmospheric dreamscape where audiences can move through light, sound, shadow, and texture.
The exhibition is rooted in the lived experiences of immigrants, refugees, and people seeking asylum, reflecting feelings of distance, longing, and memory. Trauma-informed workshops over Autumn 2026 with local Wakefield communities will generate spoken memories, ambient soundscapes, and emotional reflections, which will be woven into the installation’s sonic and visual environment.