While Lancashire Encounter doesn’t return to Preston until September 2020, the festival is back for a Brief Encounter this month.
AdvertisementTaking place on Friday 20 September from 6pm to 10pm, the mini version of Lancashire Encounter will feature three installations.
The Flag Market will host Chorus, a monumental and impressive installation of kinetic sound sculptures by artist Ray Lee. Towering above the audience a series of giant metal tripods support rotating arms. At the end of each arm loudspeakers emit precisely tuned musical pitches creating a pulsating, harmonic drone, singing out a hypnotic siren call to all those present. Red lights at the end of the arms create the effect of planets in motion, like mesmerising orbits of colour.
Shimmer Tree by Dan Fox will take place under the Covered Market. Shimmer Tree is a 12-channel sound system that uses copper-alloy cymbals as speakers, an immersive diffusion system with a natural metallic reverb. Arrays of super-bright LEDs up-light the cymbals with programmed chases creating dynamic patterns and colours.
Pendulum Wave Machine by Travelling Light Circus has twenty steel balls seeming to float, like baubles of mercury, before being set in motion to become a harmonious wave of dreamy beauty as silver spheres fall mysteriously into line, then dissolve into chaos. A marvel during daylight, more mysterious when seen at night.
Councillor Peter Kelly, Cabinet member for culture and leisure said: “Brief Encounter and Lancashire Encounter have become established arts and performance festivals in Preston over the last few years. They are a brilliant way to recreate the fantastic buzz in the city centre that comes from Preston Guild – without having to wait 20 years!
“This year is no exception, and the artists bringing their installations to the city will amaze and delight visitors with their creative talents.”
Read more: ‘Beautiful and Brutal’ exhibition to celebrate 50 years of Preston Bus Station
For more information visit the Lancashire Encounter website.
The full Lancashire Encounter weekend will return next year from Friday 18 to Sunday 20 September.
Read more: See what’s on in Preston
Will you be going to Brief Encounter? Let us know in the comments below.