A NEW festival is set to cast Poole in a whole new light next month.

The first Light Up Poole festival takes place from February 15-17 and will transform the area between Falkland Square and the Quay after dark.

International and local artists, many of them working in collaboration with Poole schools and arts organisations, have been given a platform to showcase their dramatic light art and digital installations.

One of the highlights is Submergence – an immersive, responsive, walk-through experience created by Squidsoup (pictured) which uses more than 5,000 individual points of controlled light to create feelings of presence and movement.

“Its beauty belies its complexity,” said Liam Birtles, a senior lecturer at Bournemouth University who has worked as part of Squidsoup for more than a decade.

“People see a beautiful glowing cube of points of light, they walk towards it, realise they can enter it and then look back out from inside it – they can’t help but see their immediate environment in a new light.”

Festival organisers have been working with local schools and young artists on a series of creative opportunities, including the Sounds of Poole album, as well as a music technology project, vlog-making and film poetry at Poole Museum.

Sponsored by Poole BID and funded by Arts Council England, the festival also forms the first part of the 40th birthday celebrations for Lighthouse, Poole’s Centre for the Arts in 2018.

Liam said: “Light is quite primal and light festivals are often held at the darkest times of the year to act as a reminder for people to come out of their shelters and gather together to remember they are not alone. There’s something magical about that.”