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Visit Scotland | Alba
Article published 08/01/2024

SPECTRA, Scotland's multi award-winning Festival of Light, returns to Aberdeen from Thursday 8 - Sunday 11 February. 

As the festival marks its tenth anniversary, the special programme will celebrate the theme of ‘Connections’ with an eye-catching array of free artworks and installations for visitors of all ages.

Spectra is delivered by Aberdeen City Council and created in collaboration with local company Live Event Management.

The show will include city landmarks such are Union Terrace Gardens, Remembrance Hall, Marischal College and Aberdeen Art Gallery. 

Festival favourites Heinrich & Palmer will return to the city with a spectacular new artwork charting the maritime story of Aberdeen, from tall ships to oil rigs, and a transition towards a renewable future. The large-scale 3D projection will take over the Sculpture Court at Aberdeen Art Gallery. Following the conclusion of the festival the piece will also become a part of the Gallery’s permanent collection.

The Gallery’s Remembrance Hall will feature Butterfly Dream, a luminously beautiful installation by artist Anne Bennett. A flight of hand-cast and neon-flecked butterflies will individually sway above the heads of the audience in the hall, reflecting the fragility and gentle power of ecosystems threatened by human interventions.

Illumaphonium dazzled Spectra audiences at Union Terrace Gardens in 2022, and the team return with a new immersive artwork for 2023. Continuum will see Broad Street transformed by an awe-inspiring geometric matrix of mirrored and luminescent sonic monoliths - opening an infinite, mysterious and magical space within and around the audience, encouraging them to create paths and connections with each other and the environment.

Other artists and installations for 2024 include:
 

  • Affinity by Amigo & Amigo
  • Submergence by Squidsoup
  • Spin Me a Yarn and Beating Heart by Lucy McDonnell and Stephen Newby
  • Lightstream by Flora Litchfield.

Find out more

For the full programme of artists, installations and locations involved across the city, find out more on the Spectra Festival website.

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