00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers, and now
00:06 we know that Christmas is definitely coming because Glow Wild is back at Kew Wakehurst,
00:11 and it's one of the UK's biggest art installations, obviously outdoor, and it's fabulous, isn't
00:17 it? Lovely to speak to Louise Burton, who is the Glow Wild producer. What makes it so
00:23 special? It must be so exciting, just about to launch into it again.
00:27 Yeah, you've come to us on day one of the rig, so literally we're about to start putting
00:33 our backbone of the trail in, our base layer of lanterns. And these are all handmade,
00:40 handcrafted throughout the year by teams of volunteers and various partners who just work
00:47 throughout the year. And lovely memories of summertime, people sitting out chatting,
00:51 making lanterns. And those all form our base layer, as I say, and then all the layers of
00:57 artworks go in on top of that. So it's just really exciting to see all that year's work
01:01 come to fruition, and with so much community effort around it.
01:05 And the lovely thing, as you were saying, is that there's heart and soul in this,
01:08 and the visitors really feel that, don't they?
01:09 Absolutely, yeah.
01:10 It's to you, and it therefore matters to us, doesn't it?
01:13 Absolutely, and there is so much heart and soul that goes into it from that community
01:17 aspect, but through the love and care that's put together in curating this. So we put together
01:24 a brief, which is very much nature-based, because everything at Wakehurst and Kew,
01:28 of course, is synonymous with nature. So our brief to our artists that we worked with this
01:33 year was all about awe and wonder in nature, and asking them for their response to that brief.
01:42 So yeah, we've got some fabulous responses in, and some amazing artworks that have come
01:47 in on the back of that, and it just makes it feel very, very bespoke to our landscape.
01:53 And it's been a fabulous trajectory from when you first started. You were saying four days,
01:57 just a few thousand visitors. Now it's more than 30 days over Christmas with 90,000 visitors.
02:03 That's staggering, isn't it?
02:04 We hope to reach that many, yes. I mean, it's certainly... but I have to say,
02:07 it never feels sort of overly packed and busy. It has a very, very special, gentle, magical feel
02:13 to it, because, you know, we're quite spread out over the trail, and we've got the staggered entry,
02:17 so it never feels sort of cluttered. And for us, it's really important to deliver that really sort
02:22 of special Christmas memory of families together, because a lot of what we do is, as we said at the
02:31 beginning, you know, from the heart, it's come from a community-type feel. And I think we were
02:35 chatting before, and it's very important that what we want to achieve is the families coming to
02:40 Glowwild have that sense of togetherness, that special memory formed when they're doing something.
02:45 And that community is crucial. Togetherness, community in nature, is just the perfect way
02:49 to end the year, isn't it?
02:51 Yeah, yeah, definitely.
02:52 And then you start again.
02:53 And then we start again. On January the 2nd, we start again. So we've got a two and a half
03:01 week stint now ahead of us in all weathers to get things ready. But we're paced, and we've got sort
03:07 of, you know, the crew all lined up. Everything goes into place, ready for opening night.
03:11 And you've got a fabulous background behind you. That's lovely.
03:14 Yeah, so this spiral of wires, this spaghetti of wires, will be out in the landscape,
03:18 believe it or not, it is perfectly ordered, it's numbered. We know how many of these little lights
03:23 go in each lantern, and what colour they are. And so over the coming week, we're beginning to put
03:29 those in place.
03:29 That's it. Well, good luck with everything. Really lovely to speak to you.
03:33 Thank you.
03:33 Thank you ever so much.
03:34 You too. Bye.
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