Bexhill After Dark, produced by local events company, 18 Hours, will feature 11 light-art installations around Bexhill town centre, along with an illuminated, wheeled parade.

Installations include The Beach Beacon by De La Warr Pavilion and Bexhill College – the iconic art deco building becomes a lightbox of shifting colours and projections with a soundtrack created by BexhillvCollege students. In Talking Heads by Impossible Theatre, audience’s faces are projected onto giant screens and animated with famous quotes from popular media. The Living Snow Globe by the Show Globe will enchant youngsters as a beautiful, friendly princess glides about in her glittering world.

LEFT: Talking Heads by Impossible Theatre credit Richard Kenworthy
RIGHT: The Living Snow Globe by the Show Globe

On the High Street by Shared Space and Light sees the Bexhill Chiropody Centre transformed, with projections onto the shop front bringing to life the history of shopping in Bexhill. In Devonshire Square, an acrobat twirls, suspended from a 9-metre-high candle. There will be illuminated juggling from the UK African Acrobats, a twisting, fantastical, illuminated Leviathan from Radiator Arts and a glowing Light Ship by Circo Rum Ba Ba. Bexhill Heritage will illuminate Bexhill’s bandstand, which they are currently renovating.

An illuminated We are Stardust parade by Radiator Arts departs from the De La Warr Pavilion at 5.30pm. It passes through the sparkling Stardust Gateway, created by Radiator’s Kate Bruce, and is made up of illuminated bicycles, wheelchairs, mobility scooters, skateboards and six illuminated flamingos! Local schools and community groups will be working throughout January to decorate their wheels for the parade.

The event is funded by Arts Council England and supported by an advisory panel, plus the Welcome Back Fund, East Sussex Arts Partnership, Bexhill Lions, Bexhill Chamber of Commerce and Rother District Council and 1066 Country, and others.

“We’re delighted to be brightening up a dark January evening with top quality, enchanting, illuminated art and entertainment,” says Director of 18 Hours, Mandy Curtis. “We hope people will come along and enjoy the performances safely.”

• Please register to attend this event to give an idea of numbers. For full information, to register and to see covid updates visit 18hours.org/bexhill-after-dark