The free festival is a first for Queensland’s south-east, transforming Southport CBD for four nights with groundbreaking art-meets-technology installations that all the family can explore.

Ten of the works are world premieres created especially for the festival, with 70 artists involved in bringing life back to the Southport CBD post-pandemic.

A light tunnel collaboration between two Queensland creatives IKONIX and Danni Zuvela will illuminate the CBD’s iconic Davison Lane.

Zuvela said she’s excited by the synergy they’ve achieved in the joint project between this high-end technical light company and her work as an internationally renowned sound artist. Both have considerable bodies of work nationally and abroad.

“I love what IKONIX has done…it’s sort of a programmable, responsive light structure and the way they can program it, it can respond to elements in the music, whether it’s highs or lows or mids or baselines,” Zuvela said.

“The tunnel’s about 20 metres long. I built the soundscape so it would surround you, but also it has this driving, changing, journeying sort of sound, which is classic for trance and electronic music.  I liked that idea that you were on a journey and the destination doesn’t matter. You can come at any point and enter this installation.”

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Zuvela hopes that people make a night of it, come in with a map of the festival, and plan a walking route with some good friends.

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“Come with your ears and heart open so you can listen and feel what you are feeling,” she said.

“I hope my work, both of them reward you if you spend longer or you come back, you would hear something different. My goal is for it to be something different.

“The other thing is at Gold Coast we have a lot of families in our world…and I feel like in some way, I also made it for people to have an experience outside of the club that they can enjoy themselves with the whole family in a safe and comfortable and creative environment.”

BIG CITY LIGHTS* Artistic Director Rosie Dennis said Zuvela’s interactive artworks are just the beginning of what’s on offer.

“Danni Zuvela’s work, coming through this iridescent light tunnel, I mean, that’s just going to be totally fun and you can run up and down that and listen to her great soundtrack for as long as you want,” Dennis said.

“Danni’s got another work in there as well, Written on the Rain, which is quite gorgeous, we’ve built a laser and smoke show around this audio piece, and it’s going to be like you’re walking into a cloud, a green cloud of rain, and it’s loud. It’s loud, and that’s the beginning of one of the laneways, which I’m really looking forward to that work as well.”

She said audiences can wander through the free self-guided festival as the city’s CBD is transformed into hypnotic displays on rooftops, building facades, alleyways, carparks and shopfronts.

“Something like BIG CITY LIGHTS*, because it’s all free and it’s all in public spaces, it’s very accessible and it’s very open for people to come and go, however they want to,” Rosie said.

“I think more and more, because we’ve got everything on demand now online, the way we play with urban infrastructure, we’re using the buildings as large-scale screens. You can watch a four-story building with a projection on it and you can dive in for 30 seconds or you can actually just stay there for 30 minutes if you want.

“It’s really inviting people to come and reconsider and reimagine urban spaces and urban landscapes through contemporary art.

“It’s fun, actually, and we’ve had a great time doing it. I’ve just had a photo sent to me of a 14 metre scaffolding tower being built on the rooftop of the TAFE building, which will hold Michaela Gleave’s work, so you’ll be able to see this absolutely massive installation from that rooftop, from Surfers Paradise actually.

“The works says “fear eats the soul”… so I don’t mind that message coming over the city for a while, you know?”

Some of the Gold Coast’s renowned hospitality venues including Mr P.P.’s Deli & Rooftop, Vinnie’s Dive Bar and Last Night on Earth will host key installations and a vibrant line-up of live music programming.

“If you come down to Southport CBD, I anticipate that it would take people around just shy of an hour to walk through, and that’s not lingering with any of the work, but just to walk through and see everything in and around the laneway,” Rosie said.

“Then I’m really hoping that people dive in and eat something at Chinatown and one of the other restaurants or go to the karaoke bar or just make a night of it down in Southport.

“It’s part of the reason why we wanted to do it because traders have had such a tough time and continue to have a difficult time because of the pandemic. What can we do? This brings new people and foot traffic into these areas, which are quiet and have been very quiet over the last couple of years.”