Newcastle and Gateshead host winter festival

After-dark fairy tales, striking light projections and glowing art cars will brighten the long nights of December as part of the NewcastleGateshead Winter Festival. The festival, which forms part of NewcastleGateshead’s world-class festivals and events programme developed by culture10, returns this year with three inspiring highlights: Enchanted Parks, Glow and Glowmobiles – all of which are free.

The festival also includes outdoor artworks in Newcastle and Gateshead by renowned artist and musician, Yoko Ono, as part of the largest exhibitions to date of her works from 1961 to the present date at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead.

Encouraging people of all ages to wrap up warm and enjoy NewcastleGateshead by creating events which light up the dark December nights is the recurrent theme across the festival programme.

Enchanted Parks 4-14 December

The box office is now open for Enchanted Parks, which returns to Saltwell Park, Gateshead, after last year’s sell-out run. The park will be transformed each evening into a magical setting for an after-dark walk for all the family.

This year’s theme of wintertime stories and adventures has inspired over twenty local, national and international artists to create an ice queen’s melting heart, ice house, snow globe, magical garden and other magical, eerie and simply beautiful fairy tale scenes that will light up the park from Tuesday 4 – Sunday 14 December.

Artists include: Yoko Ono (New York), Gloria Ronchi and Claudio Benghi (Italian artists now working in Newcastle), Ross Ashton (London), Shanaz Gulzar and Steve Manthorp (Keighley), and Dodgy Clutch (Newcastle) and Imogen Cloet (Newcastle).

As part of Enchanted Parks, Yoko Ono will present Wish Trees for Gateshead where visitors will be invited to express their wishes on paper and hang them on newly installed Wish Trees. These will be gathered up and sent to join hundreds of thousands of other wishes from around the world at the Imagine Peace Tower in Videy Island, off the coast of Reykjavik in Iceland.

Enchanted Parks is a free event; however timed tickets must be reserved in advance. Tues-Fri 6.30pm-9pm, Sat & Sun 5.15pm-9pm. The event is expected to sell out so early booking is recommended.

Glow 11-15 December

Glow will quite literally throw the spotlight on Newcastle’s rich heritage by using architectural light projections to illuminate the medieval town walls. Described as a ‘visual exercise in Geordie Geography’, the projections will incorporate black and white images drawn from historic sources, such as 19th-century maps and Thomas Bewick engravings, as well as symbols of Geordie culture and identity. It aims to reveal buildings, spaces and views often unknown to local residents and visitors.

Glow will be illuminating: the West Walls at Gallowgate, Morden Tower, and The House of Recovery; and the Sally Port Tower on Tower Street, from Thursday 11 – Monday 15 December, 4.30-9.30pm.

There will also be an atmospheric poetry reading in Morden Tower – part of the old town walls - on Saturday 13 December. It will celebrate North East poetry, the tower’s little-known heritage as a unique meeting place for poets – including the likes of legends Allen Ginsberg, Seamus Heaney, Tony Harrison, Steve Smith and Simon Armitage - and the life of Bill Griffiths, whose love and careful documenting of the Geordie dialect has left a lasting legacy.

Glowmobiles 31 December

Eighteen magical mechanical and illuminated art cars will return for Glowmobiles on New Year’s Eve to end the festival with a bang. Look out for Gladys, the fire-breathing fire engine, and Tone Float, the musical milk float, amongst other vehicles back by popular demand. This will include three brand new art vehicles specially commissioned for the Winter Festival.

After an afternoon ‘pitstop’ at Baltic Square, the Glowmobiles will meet at Grey’s Monument in Newcastle in the afternoon before parading down Northumberland Street at 5.30pm to take part in a glowing finale outside Newcastle Civic Centre at 6pm.

People are encouraged to dress glowingly with prizes for the best and most imaginatively illuminated. Outfits can also be created at a special Transformation Station that will open near Grey’s Monument from 2pm.

Yoko Ono Between The Sky And My Head outdoor artworks

In a ground-breaking first for the North East, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art is working with Yoko Ono to present a number of external projects for the region, which will form part of NewcastleGateshead Winter Festival and the largest exhibition of her work to date in Europe which runs from Sunday 14 December 2008 until Sunday 15 March 2009.

As well as Wish Trees for Gateshead, there will be two other outdoor artworks.

ONOCHORD, a work where Ono uses light to form a code spelling out “I Love You” will be presented as a large projection of light from the Castle Keep, the original ‘new castle’ from which the city gets its name (from Sunday 14 December). A special participatory event incorporating ONOCHORD will take place outside BALTIC on Sunday 14 December at 6.00pm. Visitors to BALTIC Square will be invited to send and receive “I Love You” messages from and to the Castle Keep.

A film made in 1968 which records a single smile of John Lennon that evolves over the course of 51 minutes, called Film No. 5 (Smile) will also be projected at Gateshead Quays (Saturday 13 December) and Newcastle Civic Centre (Thursday 18 December).

As part of the seasonal mix, NewcastleGateshead Winter Festival also includes traditional festive favourites including pantomimes, performances, Christmas light switch-ons and ice-skating as well as concerts and winter markets

More information about NewcastleGateshead Winter Festival can be found by visiting NewcastleGateshead.com/winterfestival.