Oxford’s Christmas Light Festival 2023 (TBC)

About Oxford’s Christmas Light Festival 2023

Oxford’s Christmas Light Festival 2023 is a 3-day celebration of Arts, Culture and Community.

The festival has been taking place since 2009. It’s evolved over the years from a single evening’s event in the city centre to a full three day weekend that includes light and sound installations, a festive market, music, dance and lots of free activities in venues across the city, and more recently to light trails and events in residential areas of the city.

As a light festival, the programme includes impressive light installations and displays, and we work with scores of cultural partners to present a host of performances, exhibitions, workshops and activities, many of which are free and ideal for all the family to enjoy.

​Oxford’s Christmas Light Festival has pivoted its approach quite dramatically, moving from an outdoor mass gathering event based in the city centre to a model that responded to COVID-19 restrictions and yet enabled more residential engagement than ever before.

Seeing the benefits of this localised approach and the sheer joy of communities making the festival programme content themselves, the festival is hoping to develop this approach even further in 2022 – with lots of ways for local communities to get involved and lots happening to lift community spirits.

Hotspots of activity in 2019 included Broad Street’s Christmas market, Gloucester Green’s live dance stage, magical installations in the Castle Quarter and Westgate Oxford into the mix as the lantern parade weaved through new spaces as well as historic ones.

This year the programme expands further into the city’s neighbourhoods and celebrates the Art of Connectivity. In addition to events in central Oxford, there will be four main festival neighbourhood hubs at Rose Hill, Cowley, Blackbird Leys, and Cutteslowe. These local creative hubs will highlight partnerships between Oxford’s leading cultural organisations, community groups and residents.

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Highlights from Oxford’s Christmas Light Festival 2022

Blackbird Leys

IF Oxford Science and Ideas Festival will host a series of Glow Your Own live and online ‘arts and coding’ workshops in the run-up to the festival. With members of the neighbourhood communities, they have planned a light sculpture for the Blackbird Leys CDI building. The interactive sculpture will be in place over the festival weekend and responds to sunlight, torchlight and sound.

Cowley

Ark-T extends a warm invitation to their Winter Lights party on Friday, 18 November, from 5.00pm, where you can experience a magical audio-visual installation, enjoy music from local musicians and DJs, take part in creative workshops, get your face painted and eat delicious seasonal food.

FloFest’s Finding the Light event was so popular last year it extends to two evenings on Friday 18 and Saturday 19 November from 4.30pm with lanterns, lights and lasers plus live music, fair rides and a secret light trail.

Rose Hill

At Rose Hill Community Centre on Saturday, 19 November, anyone young or old can join in a polar light parade, workshops, local films and live music with Rose Hill Junior Youth Club and Film Oxford in the afternoon from 4.45pm.

Magdalen Road Studios and Pegasus have teamed up to host the Magdalen Road Festival of workshops, art installations, light trails and performances. There’s even an after-party with music and a pop-up café

Cutteslowe

The North Wall has partnered with the Cutteslowe Community Centre to deliver lantern and window display-making workshops with local art clubs and Cutteslowe Primary School for the Cutteslowe Light Trail. Grab a map on Saturday, 19 November, from 5.00pm to view the beautifully lit windows in houses across Sunnymead and Cutteslowe, illuminated trees, a light sensory disco, shadow light theatre and crafts.

West Oxford

Visitors to Botley Park will see illuminated trees and a hidden light trail on Sunday, 20 November, courtesy of the West Oxford Pantomime Association. A lantern procession from 5.00pm will be led by local musicians, followed by decorated cycles and sleighs pulled by ‘reindeer’ and ‘huskies’. The best sleigh wins a prize.

City Centre

Modern Art Oxford welcomes the return of the Shadowlight Artists supported by Film Oxford. The latest exhibition, Captured Moments, features new work by artists Lucy Skuce and Mark Hemsworth.

Oxford City Council has teamed up with the High Streets Association, Independent Oxford, Daily Info and High Street Safari to run an innovative augmented reality trail for families starting on 18 November. Anyone with a smartphone can use it to Hunt for the Lost Toys on a route through ten stops, including shops and attractions around the city. Families will be guided by a team of superheroes as they make story choices for their Christmas adventure and see cheeky elves burst to life on their screens.

The Victorian Christmas market on Broad Street will warm and cheer visitors with their seasonal food, gifts and refreshments. As well as the Broad Street location, a visit to the Museum of Oxford will shine a light on the gifted creators of the city who make high-quality affordable presents for any Christmas list.

City centre churches, Wesley Memorial, and St Ebbe’s will be holding festive services, and iconic Christmas trees will be on display in Broad Street and at the Oxford Castle & Prison, where there will also be a seasonal trail.