Oxon’s Millenium Closes With ‘Winter Light’

OXFORDSHIRE’S millennium will close with a flourish in five county towns at the end of the year. Winter Light ? a series of colourful finale events ? will bring the curtain down on a special year which has highlighted the county?s rich creative life with new festivals and collaborations, from Luminox (a spectacular light and fire spectacle in Oxford?s historic Broad Street) to the Children?s Food Festival and Alice?s Day.
Winter Light continues the theme of light, fire and spectacle which has run throughout Oxfordshire in 2007. Son et lumiere, fire pictures and giant illuminated cones will create a magical atmosphere to light up the festive season.
Link
to the Winter Lights programme of events

Symphonie Conique in Chipping Norton and Henley

Centrepiece of the celebrations will be Symphonie Conique, a magical forest of spires – some of them up to 40 feet high ? which change colour and also respond to people around them with different sounds. A soundtrack unique to Oxfordshire has been created, which includes bells, horses? hooves and even the Friday night chip shop!
Symphonie Conique, which is produced by French company, Airvag and has travelled around the world, will make an appearance in Chipping Norton on December 6 (creating an echo of the ancient Rollright Stones on the Common), Henley (reflecting in the water and on one thousand years of history by the riverside) and Oxford (Broad Street) on December 7. All ten cones will then be reunited in Oxford for one magical showing.

Symphonie Conique will add a millennium dimension to the Christmas lights switch-on and festive celebrations in Chipping Norton and Henley. In Chipping Norton, a candlelight procession to the Common is part of an evening which also includes late-night shopping (until 9pm), stalls, roundabouts and rides, a Christmas bazaar in the Town Hall and a pig roast. In Henley, traditional celebrations also include late-night shopping, plus carol singing round Christmas tree in the town square.

Oxford: White Night

In Oxford, Symphonie Conique will be part of White Night, when the city?s galleries, theatres, museums and open spaces host a special late-night evening of art, music, dance and performance. White Night is a popular event in many cities across Europe and the county?s millennium closing event will create a similar festive idea for Oxfordshire and a link with its European neighbours.
White Night will include a chance to meet the Tudors at the Museum of Oxford; a ghost fest and ice sculptures at Oxford Castle; Nightfair before Christmas, a live art fair and entertainment in Gloucester Green produced by OVADA gallery; flambeaux, harpsicord and carols at the Ashmolean Museum; music in the foyer at Oxford Playhouse and late-night cabaret at the Burton Taylor theatre; the Pitt Rivers and Natural History Museum by torchlight plus community choirs and musicians; slam poetry at the Museum of the History of Science; and guided tours of Modern Art Oxford?s current exhibitions with refreshments, music and conversation (with the Oxford Muse) in the caf