#light-festivals

#light-festivals

There's something about the holiday season that makes us all feel like kids again. Maybe it's the crisp air, the smell of pine, or the anticipation of gathering with loved ones. For me, though, it's the lights. Those twinkling, shimmering displays that transform ordinary streets into something magical. Across America, entire towns take this tradition seriously, turning themselves into winter wonderlands that draw visitors from all over the world.

Sounding amused, publisher Pramod Kapoor recalls the reaction of the Indian cricketing legend Bishen Singh Bedi when he learned Kapoor was printing 3,000 copies of his autobiography. Only 3,000? he protested. I fill stadiums with 50-60,000 people coming to see me play and you think that's all my book is going to sell? Kapoor, the founder of Roli Books, explains that Bedi's legions of admirers were unlikely to translate into book buyers. That was in 2021.

It's my mom's favorite country, and the house we share is full of treasures from her travels there, from peacock fans and silk scarves, to jewelry boxes carved from mango wood. I grew up in the UK, hearing spellbinding tales of painted elephants and mirrored palaces, and India soon occupied a special place in my imagination. Having got to 42 without making it to the promised land, this summer my chances of going there felt slimmer than ever.

It was less than 24 hours after the news of a horrifying attack at a similar Menorah lighting in Sydney's Bondi Beach reverberated around the globe when Menlo Park's Jewish community gathered in Fremont Park to light the Menorah. Together, those assembled had the victims across the ocean in mind and prayed for them to find healing and comfort. The message of the Menorah has always been the resilience of light, and its message could not have been more relevant for a day which bore such difficult news.

This is the time of year when my kitchen starts to tell the truth about who I am. Scottish crab, fresh from Tarbert, is lowered gently into a bubbling chilli bath of sambal and egg to become chilli crab, scooped up with steamed mantou buns and eaten messily with friends and family. Oysters from Lindisfarne are deep-fried in a light cloak of rice and corn flour, fished out of the wok with long chopsticks and dipped into sweet chilli sauce.

The Grade II*-listed power station has hosted the free lights festival every year since 2020, with the event dating back to before the art deco building was re-opened as a shopping and cultural destination. Last year's light installations included a massive spider made up of 80 smaller spiders, a mechanical cyborg and a gigantic, partially unravelled ball of yarn (pictured above).

But at the end of this month, there's a brand new festival arriving to inject some colour into the financial district. 'Vibrance' will light up Roman ruins, medieval churches and secret gardens across the Square Mile on Thursday January 29 and Friday January 30 from 5.30pm until 8.30pm. Created by Guildhall Production Studio, it brings together more than a dozen artworks and live performances by emerging artists from Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

A February vacation can be the right time to explore different parts of the country. Whether solo or with loved ones, February is a sweet spot for travel. It also means fewer crowds, better deals, and pleasant weather in many destinations. So, if you are planning a getaway, here's a list of some of the best places to visit in February in India.

Tons upon tons of these single-use plastics end up in landfills or even floating in the ocean. Spanish design firm PET Lamp set out give another purpose to these otherwise short-lived materials. Partnering with artisans in communities from Chile to Ethiopia to Australia, the company celebrates both Indigeneity and sustainability, drawing upon time-honored global craft traditions while supporting local economies and recycling discarded materials.

The lights are completely free to see and will switch on every evening from 5pm to 10pm until January 31. For 2026, the festival's theme is 'Dreamscape', which promises an 'an exploratory journey of the surreal and ethereal'. Expect interactive displays, colourful projections and magnificent installations from world-renowned light artists, as well as pop-up food stalls to keep you fuelled along the way.

A lot has changed since the last time I popped up in your inbox - a little Christmas snow (or close enough) for the first time in a very long time. And we swore in a new mayor in the bowels of an abandoned subway station. (If you didn't get an invite to that ceremony, here's a tip: Stay on the downtown 6 after the last stop, and you'll loop around that gorgeous station.)

It's a free, walkable outdoor event that blends sculpture, projection art, interactive exhibits and even giant Roaming Gnomes (more about them later) and takes place Jan. 17-Feb. 15. It's the eighth time around for an event patterned after light festivals in Europe and elsewhere (see Fete des Lumieres in Lyon, France; Berlin Festival of Lights in Germany; and Vivid Sydney in Australia), and it draws both artists and spectators from around the globe.