Tokushima LED Art Festival 2016

Last night my family went to see the illumination festival in Tokushima. It was a beautiful festival that was a novel way to enjoy lights in the lead up to many winter holidays and festivals.

P_20161217_193653_LL


VIDEO CLICK HERE


Winter solstice and winter lights; the two have a connection that goes back thousands of years. Sometimes instead of saying 'Why?', we should just say 'Wow!'This was our experience last night at the Tokushima LED Art Festival. In various places throughout the city of Tokushima, the company teamLab had created a wide assortment of illumination that allowed the viewer to not only enjoy viewing the illumination, but also at times interacting with it. Further information can be found at the teamLab site on the internet.Over the course of a few hours, my daughter's iPod registered that we'd walked over 6000 steps during our viewing of the various instalments found around the city.We weren't the only ones, as the streets were filled with people, young and old enjoying the sights. One of the things I like best about winter is when there are things for people to go out and do and enjoy themselves, rather than staying inside. Was it cold outside last night? Yes, it was. Did we complain and whine about it? No, we didn't. Like many others, we prepared for the weather and while enjoying the festival, our minds were on other matters.While decorated houses and buildings are always nice to see, this interaction with the city and with nature was even more enjoyable. Highlights of the festival for me were the giant luminous balls that were floating in and around the Shinmachi River that kept changing colours, the dancing Awa Dancers wearing special LED costumes, the giant 'Christmas tree' made out of thousands of LEDs that users could add decorations to, using their smartphones, and finally the forest of trees that communicated with us, via sound and light, pictured above in the video.Should you find yourself in the vicinity of Tokushima, Japan over the next few days, take the time to enjoy this festival. You will not be disappointed.

blog comments powered by Disqus