LightNight 2019 – Rituals – A free one-night arts festival

Celebrating it's 10th anniversary LightNight returns on Friday 17 May 2019, unlocking the doors of Liverpool’s best-loved and lesser-known arts, culture and heritage venues late into the night. A culture crawl like no other, visitors of all ages are invited to follow an unforgettable trail of events in celebration of the city’s year-round world-class cultural offer.  

LightNight showcases the creative lifeblood of Liverpool, presenting new and ambitious artistic commissions amidst a vibrant programme of more than 100 events including everything from concerts, exhibitions, hands-on workshops and dance to street performance, theatre and talks. It’s the perfect chance to enjoy the bustling atmosphere and experience the city’s cultural offer after-hours with friends and family.

The theme for this year's LightNight is 'Ritual'. Rituals of all kinds, ancient and modern, are seen in cultures from all over the world; where there is community, there is also ritual. For 2019 LightNight will explore personal and collective rituals, from the spiritual to the habitual, and consider how they help us to understand the world and define, or transcend, our place within it.

Many of us also have private rituals, that we enact through repetition or routine; whether it’s getting ready to go out, marking an anniversary or lighting a candle for a loved one there is a deliberateness, a level of choice, in ritual that offers significance beyond a simple action.

For LightNight 2019, we will consider ritual as a universal phenomenon, spanning the breadth of human history, and also as an artistic process by which we shift our state of mind. Ritual offers us an active and creative process by which to create shared meaning, understand the world, and define – and transcend – our place within it.

Find out more lightnightliverpool.co.uk | Email: lightnight@ljmu.ac.uk

City Social: LightNight Culture Crawl for current students

With so much happening across Liverpool this LightNight, the LJMU Student Opportunities team will be hosting a special LightNight culture crawl, guiding you through the best bits of the festival, providing recommendations and fun facts along the way. Sign up for the culture crawl and join the team at John Foster social zone at 4pm for the guided tour, and at 6pm you are free to explore the festival, fresh with top tips to have the best LightNight yet.