Mary Sewell
17th January 2023

As we start to enter an exciting new year, there's plenty of things to see and do in Medway.   

We start the Medway 2023 calendar of colourful and lively events with a spectacular two consecutive evenings of light extravaganza, with a 12-storey-high interactive installation, is set to illuminate Medway’s naval town of Chatham.

Drawing on the success of the first Medway Light Nights, which attracted more than 60,000 people to historic Rochester in 2022, the free festival will return to Medway’s Chatham city centre on Friday, 10 and Saturday, 11 February 2023 and is anticipated to be an even bigger, better and brighter light display. 

The event will be launched on Friday with a lantern procession, organised by Ideas Test, Cohesion Plus and Intra Arts, with hundreds of school children further lighting up Chatham town centre.

At one end of Chatham High Street, overlooking the River Medway, is Mountbatten House. The former office block, which towers above the town centre with an iconic wall of windows, will be transformed into a video screen creating an animation using inclusive symbols with an accompanying soundtrack. The commission, Pixels by Lucid Creates, is anticipated to wow the crowds as part of the finale of a lantern procession transforming the major landmark in Medway’s city centre. 
 
At the other end of Chatham High Street to Mountbatten House, visitors will be taken on a journey through Medway and will be able to explore the enchanted river that made Chatham great. The Magical Medway at Nucleus Arts is an immersive experience of lights, sounds, theatre and surprise as visitors walk through the gardens of Nucleus Arts, transformed into magical playground of nautical fun.

Each display follows the theme Love Chatham and will be playful and accessible installations celebrating the landscape and local stories. Chatham has a strong, growing creative community and Medway Light Nights 2023 will highlight the town’s historical and current relationship with artists. The commissions will reflect the area’s rich history, diverse culture and ambitious future of Chatham.
 
Other confirmed commissions at this time include:
•    Impossible Arts, with Lightweight
•    Dream Safari, title to be announced 
•    Circadian, Heart Beats
•    Howard Griffin, Moving the Immovable: Electric Chatham
•    Colour Foundry, Patchwork Habitats
•    Circo Rum Baba, Light Ship
•    Bureau of Silly Ideas presenting a SuperFiction
•    Emergency Exit Arts, Fire Laboratory

Check out the Rochester 2022 event by watching this short video below.

Plan your Visit

When planning your visit to Medway Light Nights, why not check out more things to see and do and places to stay.