LIGHT UP POOLE LIBBY!

LIBBY! Libby Battaglia has brought together art, innovation and technology to shed new light on this historic maritime town

- Nicholas Johnston

If you’re going to stick your neck out and do something so startlingly new that it entices tens of thousands people out of their homes to wander the cold streets of Poole after dark in February, it helps to know that nothing is impossible. Just ask Libby Battaglia the former professional dancer whose hard work and relentless positivity have seen her create, from scratch, the annual event that has quite literally shed new light on the town and its heritage and brought it to a global audience.

Light Up Poole festival of digital light art returns on 20 February when for three nights the High Street, Old Town and Quay will host a series of installations, many of them new commissions, that inhabit the point at which art, innovation and technology intersect. The festival’s first two iterations enchanted upwards of 60,000 visitors with a series of beautiful, atmospheric and provocative works of art produced in collaboration with partners including NASA.

“It’s a passion,” says Libby. “As a dancer from the age of 12 I was trained that everything has to be possible so words like ‘no’ and ‘can’t’ must not be part of your vocabulary otherwise you’d never achieve some of the movement you have to do. I have the same mindset today. ”

This year’s Light Up Poole is even more ambitious. The programme has expanded to include talks from Oxford University and the European Space Agency, more light art workshops and, for the first time, ticketed events including a family rave as the festival takes another giant leap.

“I’m a big picture person and I love change so growing the festival is all-important. It can seem scary, but to achieve great things we have to overcome our fears and I’ve been fortunate to have had some big believers right from the start.”