THE first ever Light Up Poole event got under way yesterday.

The festival aims to transform the High Street after dark between Falkland Square and the Quay, with a host of interactive artworks and illuminations.

Sponsored by Poole BID and funded by Arts Council England, the event includes The Squirrel, a three-metre sculpture outside Quay Amusements highlighting threats to Brownsea Island’s famous colony of red squirrels.

Juxtaproject has been created specially for the event, located outside Barque in Weston’s Lane.

A series of images of facial features will be screened from projectors that viewers are invited to pick up and move around, assembling body parts in any way they see fit.

Meanwhile sound artist Jon Adams has worked with the SoundStorm music education agency and local schools to make a soundscape album of found sounds that will play in the Fish Shambles on the Quay.

Festival director Libby Battaglia, of Audacious, said it was “really emotional to see so many people” at the event.

“People came out in their masses. All of the volunteers working with us from Poole Museum said they had never seen anything like it in the High Street.

“There were so many different age groups - the kids were loving it. There was even a group of 18 pensioners who came to the silent disco.”

The free event, which continues on Saturday, spans across the town centre, and features 14 installations from nearly 30 artists.

Libby recommends people start inside the Lighthouse before making their way through the Dolphin Centre, down Kingland Crescent and Falkland Square, then heading along the High Street towards the Quay.

“Audacious puts art in places where people don’t expect to find it,” Libby said.

“It disrupts spaces in a good way and everybody can engage with it. This event features artists who are the future ‘rock stars’. Some of them are local artists, others are young people who trained at our universities and became international artists.”

She added: “We’re already talking about bringing Light Up Poole back for 2019. It’s a really great collaboration of businesses and arts organisations.”

The event runs each day to Saturday, inclusive, from 4pm to 9pm.

For more information visit lightuppoole.co.uk.