After dark, the gardens are transformed into enchanted forests to get people into the Christmas spirit.Lights and lasers dance to the sound of Christmas music.Dazzling colours and images are projected across a giant water screen bringing the Kew Gardens conservatory to life.
Now in its sixth year, the 2018 Christmas at Kew display is bigger than ever before, with over a million twinkling pea-lights and thousands of laser beams.Adam Farrar, head of commercial activities at the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, says this is the most magical show ever done at the gardens.”There’s a fantastic garden of lasers that you walk through. And it’s very kind of misty and you can see the lasers bouncing on and off, which I think people are going to love. And then after that you cross the lake and at the lake there’s 300 origami boats that are kind of colour changing. It’s very, kind of, romantic and reflective. It’s beautiful,” Farrar says.
The result of nearly a year’s planning and preparing, this year’s show has something for everyone, both young and old.A range of Christmas songs play across the landscape.
Christmas at Kew has grown to be one of London’s most popular holiday events, according to Farrar.”It’s phenomenally popular. In fact, the tickets are likely to all be sold out in a week or two. So, we will have.. probably a quarter of a million people will come and visit at some point,” he says.The trail leading to the Pam House conservatory, the show’s grand finale, is filled with enchanting displays of light, colour and music.The aim has been to create a magical path through the gardens to lift people and make them smile despite bleak winter weather.A dancing field of lights changes colours at the tune of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and was designed by creative sound and light art studio, Ithaca.
Nearby, there is the perfect selfie opportunity in front of a giant beech tree covered in thousands of lights.Tony Kirkham, Arboretum and Gardens Manager at Kew Gardens, and his team decorated the tree.We finished the last Christmas show, we start to plan the new one. We choose the artists, we choose the routes and ‘ok’ all that. And then we choose the trees that we want to light,” Kirkham says.The beech tree was chosen for its shape and size, he says.To do this tree we’ve used about two and a half kilometres of cable, of lights. Which amounts to about 24-thousand individual lights, which is quite a lot.”
After some dancing under the disco balls, visitors see a display of 300 illuminated origami boats floating on Kew’s lake, changing colour with the music.I thought it was amazing, I thought it was great for kids. I just think it’s such a lovely atmosphere, very Christmassy, getting into the Christmas spirit,” says Sally Evans, who’s visiting the gardens with her family.
Visitor John Potter says: “I liked a lot of things, liked the Ithaca. I liked some of the natural things as well, as the electronic lights. Spectacular, very well doneThe “Christmas at Kew” light trail is on at London’s Kew Gardens from the 22nd of November 2018 to the 5th of January 2019 until 10pm.
