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  1. Puffing Billy’s Train of Lights
    Photograph: Supplied
  2. A dark room with glowing projections of an underwater world.
    Photograph: Supplied/Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium
  3. A woman stands in front of a neon wall of rainbow colours, her child takes a photo of her
    Photograph: Scienceworks

Get lit: everything illuminated and glowing in Melbourne this month

All of the lights, all of the lights

Adena Maier
Written by
Bianca O'Neill
Contributor
Adena Maier
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Looking for something to do this winter? Don't worry – there are plenty of gorgeous light-up events to see in Melbourne this month. From a field of bioluminescent jellyfish squid to kaleidoscopic mirror mazes, you'll be covered on every front.

Get lit in Melbourne this month with some of our favourite illuminated, glowing, and lit-up events below.

Want to explore regional Victoria? Here's our list of winter light festivals outside of Melbourne.

Everything illuminated and glowing in Melbourne

  • Things to do
  • Pop-up locations
  • Melbourne

After a hugely popular debut in Melbourne last winter, Lightscape has announced its return to Melbourne. From June 16 to August 6, take a nighttime stroll through the Royal Botanic Gardens and experience luminous pathways, lit-up tree canopies and soothing soundscapes. 

"Lightscape was an overwhelming success [in 2022] and we are delighted that this world-class event is returning to Melbourne so that Victorians can again enjoy our gardens in a whole new light," says Professor Tim Entwisle, director and chief executive of the Royal Botanic Gardens. 

For the upcoming season, you can expect an all-new 2.1km trail accompanied by stunning lakeside reflections, colour-changing installations, large-scale illuminated sculptures and other wonders, with more than 100,000 tiny lights on display. Be mesmerised by an eight-metre sphere filled with over 20,000 moving LEDs, singing trees and a flickering fire garden.

You'll also be able to grab a bite to eat at food trucks and bars at the Lightscape Welcome Zone and along the trail.

They say that Melbourne is at its best in winter and events like Lightscape, where you can rug up and join friends for a unique experience, are a big reason why. Adult tickets start at $32 and are available through the website – be quick as they tend to go fast. 

Find out more about Lightscape 2023.

 

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  • Things to do
  • Ice skating
  • Melbourne

Wander slightly off St Kilda Road and watch as The Rink at Birrarung Marr materialises in front of you, frozen over to make room for ice skaters of all ages and abilities to glide at their own pace. Kicking off on June 1 to celebrate both Rising and the beginning of Melbourne’s winter, this pop-up invites visitors to carve up the glacial arena under a blanket of glimmering lights that mimic and augment the night sky.

 

  • Art
  • Digital and interactive
  • South Wharf

Experience the sights and sounds of Australia’s First Nations artists like never before with Connection, the latest immersive experience at the Lume. Opening on June 23, get ready to step inside the iridescent world of First Peoples art and culture, displayed on a scale that needs to be seen to be believed. Spanning 3,000 square metres of gallery space, Connection will feature projections four storeys high and an awe-inspiring display of original art.

 

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  • Things to do
  • Fairs and festivals
  • Docklands

Firelight Festival is returning to Docklands this winter from June 30 until July 2. NewQuay Promenade, Harbour Esplanade, Victoria Harbour Promenade, Buluk Park and Docklands Central Park will be set alight, literally, with fiery installations from 5pm on each of the three nights. In fact, this year’s iteration will feature more than 40 fire pits and 35 flame jets. 

 

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  • Things to do
  • Exhibitions
  • Spotswood

Head to Scienceworks for a brand new exhibition focusing on the science of light. Kids and adults alike will love this exploration of light and colour, featuring interactive exhibits, neon displays, and even an invisible laser sensor chamber. With an illuminated colour-mixing station, a giant kaleidoscope and more, the hands-on, interactive play is an excellent introduction to the world of STEM for kids and will keep them entertained during the winter school holidays.

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  • Things to do
  • Exhibitions
  • Melbourne

Get ready to go on a journey through living light when Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium unveils its new interactive digital experience in mid-February. Marking the major attraction’s first foray into this ever-evolving art form, Submerged is inspired by the bioluminescent underwater world and will tell the story of the mysterious firefly squid (which emits a glowing blue light from its body) and other majestic ocean creatures. The exhibition will also explore magical locations such as a glittering shoreline in the midst of spawning season and a moonlit deep dive into the depths of the bioluminescent unknown.

Prefer the dark? Try one of these Darkfield experiences...

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Ever thought about what it would be like to be a ghost? Floating around, haunting a hotel ravaged by fire? 

Eulogy is the latest immersive sound experience from Melbourne company Realscape Productions, the team behind the brilliantly scary Séance, which has had two successful runs in Melbourne. That experience was legitimately terrifying, conjuring up nefarious spirits inside a shipping container using nothing but cutting edge 3D sound design and some lowkey seat vibrations. 

This time around, the creators ask you to be plunged into darkness to explore "the relative merits of an embodied human conscious experience, versus one that only exists in the imagination." We don't know exactly what to expect from Eulogy, and that's part of the fun. What we do know is that the shipping container has been fitted out with a scary-looking line of transparent caged sections, each with a set of headphones.

All we can really hope for is that we can emerge safely, back in our corporeal body when it's all over, but judging by past Darkfield experiences, anything is possible.

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Are you scared of the idea of being trapped inside your body? Hearing people around you making decisions, talking about you, without being able to respond? Well this may (or may not) be your next opportunity to confront your fears.

Coma is the latest immersive sound experience from Melbourne company Realscape Productions, the team behind the brilliantly scary Séance, which has had two successful runs in Melbourne. That experience was legitimately terrifying, conjuring up nefarious spirits inside a shipping container using nothing but cutting edge 3D sound design and some lowkey seat vibrations. 

We don't know exactly what to expect from Coma, and that's part of the fun. What we do know is that the shipping container has been fitted out with medical-style bunk beds, and we're told that "the moment of waking is actually when your dream begins". All we can really hope for is that we're alive when we emerge, but judging by the recommendation to "take your body with you when you leave," we're not exactly hopeful.

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You know the drill: check your boarding pass, find your assigned seat, stow your baggage in the overhead bin and fasten your seatbelt. Make sure your tray table is in the upright position, and make sure your window blind is open for takeoff. On a monitor in front of you, a flight attendant in a blue uniform details the safety features of this aircraft. She explains that you should take a minute to find your nearest exit, bearing in mind it might be behind you. As she adjusts her pink scarf, she... wait a minute, wasn't her uniform blue? The screen flickers and she's back to blue, and you wonder if you imagined the pink. And then the lights go out. 

This is Flightthe latest immersive sound experience from Melbourne company Realscape Productions, the team behind the brilliantly scary Séance, which has had two successful runs in Melbourne. That experience was legitimately terrifying, conjuring up nefarious spirits inside a shipping container using nothing but cutting-edge 3D sound design and a few vibrations. 

Flight is also in a shipping container, but inside it's been fitted out to look exactly like a plane, including overhead bins, real plane seats and real plane window blinds. If you find real planes uncomfortable, physically or mentally, you'll find this one uncomfortable. And that's before the plane plunges into complete, pitch-black darkness. And then the screaming begins.

Those with anxiety about flying will find Flight a nightmarish recreation of their worst fears. The clever use of directional sound in high-end headphones creates a complete narrative, as it sounds like those around you are getting up, talking to each other and to you, making strange decisions, whispering to each other – and to you. Those headphones, the realistic set design and some clever surprises put you in the world of a doomed flight. The show only lasts about half an hour. But by that time you'll be searching for your nearest exit, bearing in mind that it might be behind you.

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"It's only 20 minutes," I think to myself. "How scary could it get for 20 minutes?" 

I'm sitting in a pitch-black shipping container with my hands on a table in front of me and noise-cancelling headphones over my ears. The headphones are the only sensory input I have – for now, at least. And what they're telling me is pretty damn scary.

Séance is an immersive sound experience created by Brits Glen Neath and David Rosenberg, in collaboration with Melbourne team Realscape Productions. It relies on psychology and our inclination towards superstition to alter guests’ perception of reality, all while never leaving the shipping container. 

But boy howdy, it sure feels like you are in a real séance. The host of the séance goes around to each guest in turn, asking if they are alone, asking if they are believers, and giving instructions. The soundscape is exquisitely precise – I could point with unerring accuracy to where in the room the host is at each moment, and I dread the time when he comes to ask me some hard questions. 

And of course, as is usually the case with séances in art, things don't go strictly to plan, and spirits don't stay contained in the places you'd hope. That's when things get really scary – and 20 minutes will feel like a lot more.  

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