On Friday night my flatmate, Eilidh, and I headed into the city center too see Aberdeen's festival of light. I believe Spectra was held last year too but I missed out because I went home for the weekend so I was determined not to miss it again. After dinner at Handmade Burger Co. we headed to the first location in Union Terrace Gardens.
Like alot of people I was attracted to the festival by the beautiful cloud of lightbulbs on all the posters and news articles. I didn't disappoint in the darkness - 6,000 light bulbs formed an interactive sculpture in a cloud of light.
Also in Union Terrace Gardens was Pa-Boom's 'Hot Heads' which were one of my favourite installations of the night. There is something mesmerizingly beautiful about fire and the head coming off them were impressive.
The 'Wave Garden' was another mesmerizing sculpture made from ribbons (I think) blowing in the wind in beautiful patterns.
From my fellow Aberdeen bloggers Insta stories I knew the next location, Nicholas Kirk, was a must see. Les Araignees did not disappoint and along with the music and location they were delightfully creepy. If it wasn't so cold I could have watched the spiders 'run' about the graveyard for ages.
We were pretty cold by the time we reached Marischal College but we stopped for a look round anyway. I was very impressed by projections onto Mitchell Hall displaying some of the stories of Aberdeen.
Annoyingly it started to snow and our bus was close so we missed out on the 'Laser Light Synths' on the front of Marischal College but it looked like alot of fun.
With 27 installation over 4 locations in the city center there was plenty to see and take in. Overall I had a really enjoyable hour or so wandering round. I also had fun playing with my camera, something I rarely get to do, and trying to take the best possible photos in the pitch dark.
Hopefully you have enjoyed my post even if you couldn't get down to see the event, it only lasted the one weekend, and if Aberdeen do something similar next year I'll definitely be back!
For more information on any of the artwork checkout Spectra's website.
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