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00:02 So 2023 sees our return to Christmas at the Botanics
00:23 at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh.
00:25 It's our seventh year at the Botanics
00:28 and it's always such a pleasure to be there.
00:30 It's such a beautiful garden
00:32 in the middle of that part of the city.
00:34 Once again, we have lots of international artists.
00:37 We have Tilt coming from France,
00:40 bringing some beautiful installations of Pampus grass,
00:43 which change color and very lightly move in the wind.
00:47 But also the wind will take the lighter-wish seeds
00:50 that are coming from Amsterdam
00:52 as they float above your head,
00:53 albeit they're two meters tall and two meters wide,
00:56 but they will magically just seem to appear
00:59 and you won't see how they're going to do that.
01:02 Also flying through the gardens will be the dragonflies,
01:06 which are over the pond.
01:07 So all of these things are really there
01:10 to pull out all of the beautiful botanical parts
01:13 of this garden and understand how all of that work
01:16 that they do in the Botanics
01:19 is really coming out in these installations.
01:22 But then we've got some fun.
01:24 So we've got a button show
01:25 that's going through the copse of trees at the end
01:29 and Santa will wave you goodbye,
01:31 but only after you've been past Inverleith House
01:33 with a brand new projection
01:35 that will cover the frontage of that projection mapped
01:38 and having all of the fun aspects of Christmas
01:41 that you'll have to see if you can spot
01:43 as they go through the different parts of the projection.
01:46 Also included will be aspects of a crocus garden.
01:50 There will be a hundred illuminated crocuses
01:52 that will change color subtly as you walk through them.
01:55 Almost like this overgrown field as they stand
01:58 two to three meters tall beside you.
02:01 Not forgetting, of course, the family favorites
02:03 of our fire garden in a brand new location this year,
02:06 but also everybody can also get their selfie taken
02:09 in amongst the Christmas Cathedral.
02:11 So lots of family favorites,
02:13 lots of things for people to enjoy with the fun of Christmas
02:16 but also ensuring we inject that beauty of the Botanics
02:20 back into the Botanics.
02:22 So all of these great installations could be seen
02:24 and from tickets that start from five o'clock in the evening
02:27 right the way through eight o'clock.
02:28 And some of those have off peak ticket prices
02:32 whilst others are how busy periods will have a peak price.
02:35 You can choose when you wish to come.
02:37 What's so fantastic about working in these landscapes
02:40 is that everything we do, all the tickets that we sell
02:43 go towards assisting the great work that Botanics do
02:46 and the great developments that the Botanics are doing
02:50 to allow the garden to flourish into the future.
02:52 Yeah, Culture Creative have been designing
02:55 and creating illuminated trails now for 17 years,
02:58 believe it or not.
02:59 And I guess they've become so much more popular
03:02 over that period of time.
03:04 And a lot of places are doing it.
03:06 And I think where we started
03:08 was about a celebration of landscape.
03:10 It was about you going to these places
03:12 that you may have been to lots of times before.
03:14 They may even be on your doorstep,
03:16 but it was for us to be able to present that
03:18 in a whole new light,
03:20 to be able to bring international artists,
03:22 which we now do from across the world into these locations
03:27 and really help tell their stories,
03:29 help to find those little nuggets of information
03:33 that maybe we don't know about.
03:35 But in the same breath,
03:36 we're also trying to make sure that we are entertaining you.
03:40 It's Christmas.
03:41 It's the ability for you and your friends and your family
03:43 to be able to come out,
03:45 have a wander around a beautiful landscape
03:48 as it would be by day,
03:50 and hopefully we're just going to make it equal,
03:52 if not more beautiful by night,
03:54 bringing flowers back to life,
03:56 bringing landscapes to life,
03:57 giving you music to jiggle along to,
04:00 to help that mulled wine
04:02 and that hot chocolate go a little bit further.
04:05 So yeah, I think it's about how we have really begun
04:08 to design those landscapes with the artist installations.
04:13 And if, for instance, in some places,
04:16 like in Edinburgh this year,
04:18 we're trying to help that venue tell their story
04:21 of their seeds and the work that they do,
04:24 but trying to do that in a really beautiful
04:26 and botanic and illuminated way.
04:29 So really it's a case of,
04:30 you can come along to one of our trails
04:32 and absolutely it's about having a walk
04:34 and it's about having some fun at Christmas.
04:36 But hopefully there's a few other little tricks
04:39 up our sleeve which will maintain your interest.
04:42 Well, you should certainly book your tickets
04:45 as soon as you possibly can.
04:46 The trails become extremely popular,
04:48 especially over the weekend periods.
04:51 So absolutely you should hit the website
04:53 and buy your tickets in advance.
04:55 We sell tickets in 15 minute slots.
04:57 So you can really decide, you know,
04:59 when in an evening you want to come.
05:01 The family's very much at the earlier
05:03 and you know, that slightly quieter time
05:06 when we've got more of an adult audience
05:07 later on in the evening.
05:09 There will always be hot food and drink available
05:11 at all of the venues.
05:13 And to be perfectly honest,
05:15 what to wear, warm, dry, put your wellies on.
05:19 We would very, very rarely cancel because of weather.
05:23 And as we all know, the great British weather
05:25 is one thing we're never ever going to be able to rely on.
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