The award-winning Not Quite Light Festival has announced that its revival edition will be taking place in Swinton at various locations across the Salford town, including Swinton Square shopping centre and the Grand Palais ballroom between Friday 15th – Sunday 17th March, 2024 following a pandemic enforced hibernation.
Not Quite Light Festival is well and truly back, and promises to bring people together, breathe new life into some of Swinton’s spaces, and involve the community in building a weekend of workshops, exhibitions, live performances, talks and guided walks.
Emerging from the Not Quite Light project, with which artist Simon Buckley (AKA Not Quite Light) explored Salford and Manchester at dawn, photographing the dramatic transition of both cities, the first series of Not Quite Light Festival events was in 2016, receiving much acclaim and winning a CityLife Award, so he decided to build it into something much bigger, staging it in Salford, where he lived at the time.
From there, the festival grew, and the event in 2020 was due to be the biggest to date, before the Covid lockdown caused its cancellation just 10 days before launch. Recently, Simon was commissioned to make the film Gathering Points in Swinton and he felt it was the right time to revive the festival, with a vision of getting it back to the level it was at in 2020 by 2025.
With support from Salford City Council, this year’s Not Quite Light will feature a fun, thought provoking and memorable programme built around art, debate, music and architecture featuring 12 events including a premiere of Gathering Points followed by a cabaret and dance festival launch event at the historic Grand Palais.
There will also be a performance and soundscape set in the shopping precinct in collaboration with artist Lowri Evans and musician Biff Roxby (Wood Rooms Studios / Honeyfeet), as well as artist Len Grant leading sketching sessions in the precinct.
Adding to the diverse programme will be workshops for kids with Buttress Architects, a social drop-in session by Swinton’s thriving knitting group, guided walks with historians and members of the Modernist Society, a music production workshop from charity Brighter Sounds, a dawn photo-walk along Swinton Greenway, a music and dance event featuring Swinton musicians and performers such as headliner Gideon Conn, and an exploration of Pendlebury born Coronation Street creator Tony Warren’s work, plus much more.
Creative director, Simon Buckley AKA Not Quite Light, said: “I love Salford, and find it a very exciting city. It’s not got one centre, but several, and I think this gives the communities that live here a unique character and strength. There is so much local talent, and a real underground dynamic.
“I’m delighted to bring back the Not Quite Festival, to again have the opportunity to commission some great artists and bring community groups together for the people of Swinton to enjoy. This year we’ve had fantastic backing from Salford City Council, which understands the value of creativity within the city. I work out of Islington Mill in Salford, and am very aware of the commitment shown by the council in making Salford a tremendous place to be for cultural activity.
“It’s been a wonderful experience bringing together various community groups and artists, and discovering how much talent and energy there is within the town. Like so many places that might not be on our radar there is so much more going on than is immediately apparent, if we’d just take the time to explore and discover.”
