Bristol Light Festival


Friday 3 - Sunday 12 February


bristollightfestival.org


Read about Davy & Kristin McGuire's work Ophelia, which will be hosted by St Mary Redcliffe here


About the festival


Bristol Light Festival fills the city with light and colour, showcasing Bristol as the vibrant, playful and creative city that we know and love.


Each edition of Bristol Light Festival feature world premier works alongside some of the best of the UK’s talent, all making their Bristol debut at carefully selected locations across the city centre. Visitors can wander and explore the city’s streets to see the light art works come to life and enjoy Bristol’s wonderful retail and hospitality businesses along the way.


Bristol Light Festival appears along some of the city centre’s well-trodden paths as well as in some unexpected locations. At each spot visitors will be able to see, experience and play with installations that are visiting the South West for the first time.


By day and night, the event is the perfect opportunity for friends, colleagues, and families to meet. All Bristol Light Festival events are free to attend and open to everyone across the full duration. We can’t wait to welcome you to explore Bristol through light.


Bristol Light Festival at St Mary Redcliffe


This year, St Mary Redcliffe will be taking part in Bristol Light Festival for the first time, hosting the work Ophelia by Davy & Kristin McGuire


A show stopping addition to this year’s Bristol Light Festival, Ophelia is a stunning light installation that creates a life-size hologram of Shakespeare’s famous character. The installation references Millais’ famous painting of the drowning Ophelia, recreating the scene with intense colour, gentle movement, air bubbles and swimming fish, this piece is emotive and mesmerising.


Set in the stunning surroundings of St Mary Redcliffe Church, visitors to the festival will be able to have a rare opportunity to enter this historic venue at night and view ‘Ophelia’ – an experience that is sure to give goose bumps!


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We've seen lots of amazing work in the visitor services department so far this year. SMR stewards have generated over £4,500 donations between January and April 2026 and welcomed over 5000 visitors to the Church. We are welcoming new tour guides to the front of house team with the eventual goal to expand the number of tours we are able to offer to the public. Janet and Reuben have both done their first tours and have received wonderful reviews from visitors. If you are interested in volunteering on the front of house team please contact me on lucy.marshall@stmaryredcliffe.co.uk . We have had some amazing feedback from our outreach events as we aim to welcome not only those familiar with SMR but also those that have never been before. These have included film screenings, talks and most recently the Redcliffe Sessions which raised just under £150 for our Lent charity partner, CALM. Thank you to all those who have supported these. The next Redcliffe Session will be in support of SMR and will feature Bristol band Dogsbody on guitar, cello and violin, and songwriter, Alex Pester on 13th June. I am very excited looking into the rest of 2026 for our future events run both in house and by external hirers, more information of which can be found on our website. If you are interested in volunteering at any future SMR events please let me know! Lucy Marshall Visitor Services Coordinator 06.05.2026