Lumiere 2: Let there be more light!

After the disappointments of the early evening, the giant snowdome in the Market Place was a welcome blast of pure fun: I liked the way Neptune was silhouetted against the royal blue of the dome, as if about to burst its bubble with his trident, and I liked the snow, so much more conveniently contained than the real thing. I was less sure about the neon message on the plinth, and not just from incipient neon fatigue: yes, I understand that the message 'I love Durham' was part of the conversion of the statue into a tacky souvenir, but given the passions aroused by that statue over the last couple of years, is it possible to take that message at face value? (The Guardian's reporter managed this, remarking that "Shoppers and workers walk by this statue every day without giving it a second glance. Now, though, they were agog, seeing it as if for the first time" and was corrected at some length in the comments).

Most of the complaints I have read about the event were about the crowds, and the failure of the organisers to anticipate and deal with them. So it's only fair to say that the Market Place was the only point at which we found ourselves in any sort of crowd, and it was, as someone remarked, nothing like the crush on Gala day. That said, we didn't go up to Palace Green: the son et lumière at the Cathedral was wonderful two years ago, but we wanted to see something new.

( And we did... )

The publicity makes much of the fact that Luniere 2011 is more than twice as big as Luniere 2009: but it wasn't twice as much fun - though it was drier, which may help explain why the number of visitors was so much greater. It's my constant lament that an event will be counted a failure unless it is more crowded than I find comfortable, but this time I'm not alone in finding the crowds (and the crowd management) a major bar to enjoyment. Our plans for the rest of the weekend meant we were doing as the organisers advised, and visited at a relatively quiet time at the very beginning of the festival, so perhaps we hit more than our share of teething troubles - I don't know, I can only report what I saw (and didn't see) - but I'd have settled for fewer items and more of them functioning properly. Some of the artworks would have had more impact, too, if there'd been less repetition. By pure luck we had saved the best till last, and came away happy, but we didn't feel the need to go out again the following night and try to see the things we had missed.