Battersea Power Station’s Free Light Festival Returns to Brighten Up Winter Nights
Battersea Power Station’s free-to-attend Light Festival is returning to the riverside neighbourhood for its fifth year from 23rd January – 23rd February 2025
Eight wondrous light art installations from British and international artists, five of which are making their UK debut including a brand-new, bespoke light installation created exclusively for Battersea Power Station, on display inside and outside the Grade II* listed Power Station during the festival
With over 150 shops, bars, restaurants and leisure venues available at Battersea Power Station, visitors can make a whole evening out of their visit to the Light Festival and enjoy a selection of special brand offers
Battersea Power Station’s annual Light Festival is returning to the iconic riverside neighbourhood for its fifth year between 23rd January – 23rd February 2025, illuminating dark winter nights and helping visitors beat the winter blues. The free-to-attend festival will showcase eight dazzling light art installations inside and outside the iconic London building, created by British and international artists.
Working with Light Art Collection, James Glancy Design and Kumquat Lab, all eight light installations on display at this year’s event will be making their London debut with five pieces making their UK debut including a brand new installation, Aurora, which has been designed exclusively for the London landmark’s Art Deco Turbine Hall A by James Glancy Design.
The Light Festival will also provide festival-goers with more than just a visual spectacle, with a number of the installations enhanced by interactive features and soundscapes including In Bloom by Kumquat Lab, an interactive musical light sculpture inspired by the pollination process in plants. As visitors engage with the sculpture, they become part of a collective musical collaboration, where individual notes blend seamlessly into a harmonious melody.
Another interactive piece is Never Ends by Italian artists Luigi Console and Valentina Novembre, which features a horse on a spring. When the horse is ridden, the lights surrounding the installation spring into action, creating a fairytale setting for horse and rider as they swing into the night.
To celebrate the launch of this year’s festival, special roaming performances will take place in Power Station Park and on Electric Boulevard, the riverside neighbourhood’s pedestrianised high street, on 23rd, 25th and 26th January 2025.
Alongside the installations, visitors can enjoy a variety of restaurants and bars open across the riverside neighbourhood. Diners looking for somewhere to warm-up at Battersea Power Station can head to the likes of Dishoom, Sticks ‘n’ Sushi, Arcade Foodhall, El Pastor, Where the Pancakes Are, Wright Brothers, Brindisa Tapas, Roti King and tashas. Battersea Brewery, Control Room B and Searcys Champagne Bar are also perfect if you fancy a beer, cocktail or some fizz after exploring the light art. Or check out the newly opened Japanese coffee specialist % Arabica for one of their signature Kyoto or Spanish Lattes. Those craving something sweet should head to the Chimney Cake winter pop-up hut in Malaysia Square and indulge in their freshly baked chimney cakes – a nod to the iconic chimneys.
Once warmed up from the winter chill, visitors can continue their evenings with some retail therapy at the extensive collection of British and international brands open at the riverside neighbourhood including ZARA and ZARA Home, Aēsop, Sweaty Betty, Mango, Scamp & Dude, IWC Shauffausen, LEGO®, Reformation, ME+EM, arc’teryx, Boots Beauty, Apple, The North Face, Adidas, and Marks and Spencer’s first standalone clothing store. They can also enjoy a round of ping pong at Bounce, the latest blockbusters at The Cinema in The Power Station or pay a visit to the world’s first standalone Peppa Pig and Transformers stores. A full list of shops, bars and restaurants at Battersea Power Station can be found here – http://www.batterseapowerstation.co.uk/retailers/.
Kate Boothman-Meier, Head of Communications & Marketing at Battersea Power Station Development Company, said:
“The Light Festival is one of our most popular and highly anticipated events, and we’re delighted to be bringing it back to Battersea Power Station for a fifth year, bigger and brighter than ever before. We take pride in supporting some of the world’s leading light artists and are thrilled this year to feature four UK debut installations, plus an exclusive, brand-new piece of light art which has been commissioned for Battersea Power Station. The Light Festival is also a great way to kick start a very exciting year for Wandsworth, which has been named the London Borough of Culture for 2025.”
The eight light installations on display at this year’s Light Festival include:
Aurora by James Glancy Design – located in Turbine Hall A inside the Power Station
A bespoke piece of light art created exclusively for Battersea Power Station for the Light Festival 2025. The installation is inspired by the wonder of the Northern Lights. The nature of light, an abstract light sculpture inspired by the ephemeral natural light phenomenon that occurs in the Artic and Antarctic regions. These lights created in the Earth’s magnetosphere by solar winds that ionize with the magnetospheric plasma.
Spin me a Yarn by Studio Vertigo (London debut) – located in the water feature in Circus West Village
What would the world look like if giants walked among us? Would we have colossal houses and tiny buildings standing side by side? And would we have massive pets that made our life massively unsafe? Giant cats playing with huge balls of wool? Spin me a Yarn, the illuminated and unusually large-scale artwork triggers these thoughts and forces us to view the world in a completely different way, playfully changing the meaning of our relationship to ordinary objects and our environment.
Tornado by UxU Studio (UK debut) – located in Power Station Park next to the River Thames
This artwork is presented as a tornado composed of light, a light art installation that combines devastating natural phenomena with magnificent fantasy. When a tornado of light appears in the city, does it bring fear to the people? Or surprise? Or fascination? According to the artists, the white light of the tornado spinning in the darkness attempts to trigger a reflection: “In the future of Anthropocene, can we use our abilities as humans more clearly and wisely?”
In Bloom by Kumquat Lab (London debut) – located in Power Station Park outside the Power Station riverside entrance
In Bloom is an interactive musical light sculpture inspired by the pollination process in plants. The sculpture resembles a plant with ten luminous spheres representing its ‘flowers’. Visitors can trigger musical notes by passing their hands in front of these flowers to activate sound and light. As visitors engage with the sculpture, they become part of a collective musical collaboration, where individual notes blend seamlessly into a harmonious melody.
Spider by Groupe LAPS (UK debut) – located in Turbine Hall B inside the Power Station
The monumental SPIDER by Groupe LAPS consists of a whopping 80 smaller spiders, at two metres wide, made from tubes with LED light. Our fascination with the gigantic monster spiders is often a popular topic in books and movies, think of Aragog and his spider family from Harry Potter, or the evil Shelob from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. However, not everyone will feel like they have ended up in a science fiction horror scene of an episode of Stranger Things. With their playful running and jumping around, the spiders resemble acrobats in some way and it is this double feeling that Groupe LAPS plays with in this artwork.
Atlas by Jon Voss (UK debut) – located in Malaysia Square
British sculptor, Jon Voss, has given the mythical story of Atlas new skin: a mechanical cyborg who supports the modern cities we live in. It’s a representation of all the cables, cords, pipes, pillars and copper wires hidden from view: that vast infrastructure of life-support systems feeding the people of every city, town and village. And yet it’s peaceful – at least for now! The human form of Atlas is a reflection of the human in our technology, how it’s centered around us and in service to us. Jon Voss’ atlas is mythical, and true to every myth it contains a subtle warning of what might come if we take too much for granted.
Parabolic Lightcloud by Amigo & Amigo (London debut) – located on Electric Boulevard
In the installation, design studio Amigo & Amigo use more than 1,000 lights to make something invisible visible: our human emotions. With different colour combinations, patterns and transitions they show us intense emotions such as love or happiness, but also calmness or sadness. But don’t be fooled, this effect can work just as well the other way around! A digitally controlled medium, like this light installation, can have a powerful influence on our mood and our actions without us realising it.
Never Ends by Luigi Console & Valentina Novembre (UK debut) – located outside Third Space by Prospect Place
Never Ends is an interactive installation whose principal actor is a horse on a spring. When a visitor starts to ride the horse, something magical happens – everything changes and the lights on the platform spring into action, creating a fairy tale setting for horse and rider as they swing into the night. In this way the artwork invites us to rediscover the pleasure of play and the beauty of being a child; it taps into a sense of continuous discovery that never ends.
Travelling to Battersea Power Station for the Light Festival could not be easier with the Zone 1 Battersea Power Station Underground station bringing the riverside neighbourhood within 15 minutes of the West End and the City. Battersea Power Station also has its very own Uber Boat by Thames Clippers pier and is a 15-minute journey from Embankment, 20 minutes from Blackfriars, 30 minutes from Putney and 40 minutes from Canary Wharf. The riverside neighbourhood is easily accessible by bus, bike, car and train too.