Christmas in Oxford - Christmas Light Night

Come and celebrate the arrival of the Christmas season in Oxford with a buzzing evening of processions, lights, dance, art, live music and street performance, all thrown together with a generous helping of festive cheer!

Christmas Light Night has become a regular fixture in the Oxford Christmas calendar attracting more than 20,000 revellers last year.

Highlights of this year's event, which takes place on Friday 26 November, will include the children's lantern procession supported by MINI Plant Oxford, the Broad Street Stage sponsored by Origin Technical Productions with live singing, dancing and celebrations, and Phil Kline's Unsilent Night Promenade.

The event will run this year from 4pm to 11pm with the lantern procession starting in Bonn Square at 6.15pm and the Christmas lights being switched on in Broad Street at 6.45pm.

This year's lantern procession is led by the K&G Youth Band from Leiden and amazing lanterns have been made using willow and tissue paper at school and community workshops in recent weeks co-ordinated by procession producers Inevents. 

The OTP Stage on Broad Street will host six hours of singing, dancing and celebrations. 

The line up includes a rare opportunity to hear a University College Choir -  followed by a fusion of African and European sounds with the 'Afropean Choir', a thirty-strong male voice 'Oxford Harmony' and an hour of 'raising the roof' singing by Gospel choirs including CLC. Also on hand will be the popular all-male accapella group 'Out of the Blue' and hold on to your hats when 'Messy Jam' and other amazing young dance groups hit the stage.

Song sheets will be provided so that you can join in the Christmas singing fun. There will also be a market selling festive treats, food and drink.

This year, we also have Unsilent Night coordinated by Oxford Contemporary Music, which is a free outdoor participatory sound sculpture recorded on cassettes, CDs, and mp3s played through a roving swarm of audio devices brought along by the participants. This community promenade by composer Phil Kline made its debut in New York in 1992 and now brings people together in cities around the world. The promenade begins at 8.15pm at Radcliffe Camera and will last for 45 minutes.

At the Oxford Castle, live music will fill the site from 6pm and at 7pm performers will lead the public procession from Bonn Square to Oxford Castle. At 7.15pm Cinderella and Father Christmas will officially switch on Oxford Castle's Christmas lights. Oxford Castle Gardens will twinkle with decorations made by local children in Father Christmas' Christmas Grotto and special Christmas wishes in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support will decorate the Trees of Thought in the Castle Gardens.

In the 03 Gallery, there will be "A Cotswold Scene"; the winners of an exciting photography competition will be on display courtesy of local landscape photographer Sarah Howard to celebrate the beauty of the Cotswolds.

As part of Christmas Light Night Oxford's galleries, theatres, museums and open spaces will be hosting a late night evening of art, music, dance and performance, providing a unique opportunity to enjoy the best the city has to offer.

At the Museum of Oxford you can join in with traditional children's games, family arts and crafts and find out what made a 'Make Do and Mend' Christmas during World War Two from staff in period costume. MINI Plant Oxford will also be on hand to discuss the story of the wheel.

At the University of Oxford Museum of Natural History there will be jazz, blues and choral music to enjoy, while the Pitt Rivers Museum in Parks Road you can experience the venue by torchlight accompanied by sounds from around the world.

The Ashmolean will be celebrating the 1st birthday of their new building, join them for a slice of birthday cake and live music before wandering through their blockbuster Pre-Raphaelites exhibition one more time before it closes on Sunday 5 December.

The Bodleian Library will mark this year's Christmas Light Night by opening the Divinity School and Convocation House free of charge.  Explore the Divinity School, built in 1488 for the teaching of theology. With its elaborately vaulted ceiling and its 455 carved bosses, it is a masterpiece of English Gothic architecture. Take a look in the 17th century Convocation House and Court, where Parliament was held in the Civil War.  Additionally, there will be musical entertainment offered by local choirs and ensembles in the Divinity School from 6.30pm.

At the University of Oxford Museum of the History of Science in Broad Street you can join them in celebrating the 150th anniversary of the beginnings of a revolution in astronomy!  In 1860 spectroscopy made it possible to find out what stars are made of. Discover spectroscopy and its history, see their exhibition of meteors and create your own personal spectrum.

You can bring your under 10's to some festive storytelling, 4.30pm - 5.30pm in the Top Room at the Oxford Playhouse, then enjoy the infamous 'Light Night Cocktail' in the bar. Jesus Christ Superstar plays on the main stage from 7.30pm - 10pm then stick around for Late Lights with live jazz from Sarah Dodd.

OVADA will be at Oxford Town Hall where they have selected regional contemporary artists to show new work that responds to the space and the history of one of the City's most attractive and historic buildings. Visitors are invited to explore the building and see the Town Hall's heritage in a new light. In the Main Hall, OVADA presents an affordable art fair showcasing unique work by the best emerging art students and practicing artists in the County.

Oxford Tourist Information Centre in Broad Street will also be open until 10pm on the night and will be able to offer advice on late night Christmas shopping and events in the city.

Christmas in Oxford is being co-ordinated by Oxford Inspires and Oxford City Council and delivered by InEvents on behalf of communities and cultural organisations across the city.

To find out more information about Christmas Light Night and to download a leaflet go to www.oxfordinspires.org.

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