A new video has just been added to our gallery all about Illuminate last year, made by our friends over at Electric Egg. 

Have a watch of it at our gallery – https://transportedart.com/gallery/videos/. 

This was the second year of our interpretation of the Mayflower 400 Journey and what brought the Pilgrims to Scotia Creek one dark night in the autumn of 1607. The event was put on by Transported and Boston Borough Council.

Illuminate 2016 saw two spectacular lantern-lit processions make their way through to Boston market place. Musicians David Grey and Daniel Pedler led the parades, which culminated in choirs singing ‘Beyond the Horizon’, the Mayflower song composed by local musician and songwriter Jo Freya, set in front of stunning light projections onto the parade and St Botolph’s Church.

Birds were used as a motif throughout the 2016 festival, with doves to represent the peace and liberty sought by the Pilgrims, and swallows to symbolise hope and migration. Media specialist Steven Hatton of Electric Egg was commissioned to create the fantastic projections using animation and video. Artists Ruth Pigott and Jessica Thompson of Curiosity Creators created two huge bird lanterns in addition to paper birds that were handed out to the audience by children in the parade. The parades were made up of schools and community groups including Wrangle School, Boston West Academy, Wyberton School, St Thomas’ School, St Giles Academy, Boston Explorers and Fishtoft Parish Council who had worked with Curiosity Creators to create their own bird lanterns.

Illuminate 2016 is the second in a series of annual light festivals that will tell the story of the Pilgrims. The festivals will lead up to a huge international celebration in 2020 to commemorate the sailing of the Mayflower, and the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers in America.

For more information about Boston’s connection to the Mayflower story, visit this link.