Specialist event producer, Culture Creative is celebrating the success of a new outdoor event delivered for East Renfrewshire Council at Rouken Glen Park last month and enjoyed by just over 12,500 visitors. The sell out event called Electric Glen, which involved creating and facilitating a night-time light festival through part of the park over five consecutive nights, has now been commissioned for a second run next year. The success of Electric Glen also adds to Culture Creative’s growing portfolio of night-time outdoor events such as Northumberland Lights and Electric Forest.
For Electric Glen the Culture Creative team worked with specialist lighting supplier, White Light, to develop a 1.5km illuminated trail round the Victorian boating pond and the challenging paths by the waterfall and glen. A crew of nine, headed up by creative director, Phil Supple and production manager, Jezz Hellens took six days to set up the route which included installing over 14 kilometers of cabling and 400 generic, moving and LED fixtures all powered by three generator sets.
Phil Supple, creative director of Electric Glen commented:
“Electric Glen was originally commissioned to celebrate the heritage of this iconic park and its different landscapes and geology. The trail, which moved from the relative calm of the boating pond to the intensity of the rock end waterfall and rugged paths of the glen, was quite a challenging one to design and set up. The crew worked tirelessly, including through some appalling weather in the final phase of the build to ensure it opened on schedule and ran smoothly.”
“Working with Zoe and Phil is always a pleasure; the resulting installations are stunning,” said Dave Isherwood, Hire and Technical Director at White Light. The company has provided equipment and solutions for several previous Culture Creative projects including the recent Electric Forest in Thetford.
“We approach these projects with the same philosophy as all our work,” Isherwood explained. “Whether in a theatre, an arena, or a forest – we provide the right tools to achieve the designer’s artistic vision. Sometimes that means tackling unique technical challenges. For Electric Glen we delivered a diverse range of lighting equipment that was flexible yet simple enough to install in difficult conditions.”
As well as lighting installations, Culture Creative also commissioned artists Jamie Wardrop and Adam Scarborough, to create a story wall in the glen. This sound work wove together voices, location recordings and music from Rouken Glen’s past and present. To add a performance aspect to the trail the Argyll-based Walking Theatre Company were brought on board to bring back the magic of the Rouken Glen Entertainers – a small troupe of variety performers who were based in the park at the turn of the 20thcentury.
Phil Supple added:
“The fact that Electric Glen sold out well in advance of the start of the run just shows the popularity of this kind of winter night-time experience. The feedback we’ve had from visitors has been amazing and we’re really looking forward to returning to this beautiful park next year.”
Electric Glen was funded by Creative Scotland, East Renfrewshire – A Place to Grow Campaign and Heritage Lottery Funding.