Luminous Night: University of Western Australia Centenary celebrations

2013 marks the 100 year anniversary of the University of Western Australia, Perth's oldest and most traditional university. To celebrate, the University is holding a number of Centenary celebrations, the biggest and most public of which was Luminous Night last Friday.

Luminous Night was intended to transform the University into a walk-through gallery and performance space, with continuous displays and performances by artists, musicians, actors and acrobats. The 'luminous' part referred to the use of light around the campus, and to a light projection masterpiece on the 1932, cathedral-like Winthrop Hall.

Luminous trees and many people

The Friday celebrations were also timed to coincide with the start of the Perth International Arts Festival. I have mentioned the festival previously, in relation to our outdoor cinema outing. From now until March, there are Festival happenings in Perth most nights, and plenty of free entertainment to complement paid events.

As we drove to UWA on Friday evening, Mr Bite casually mentioned that it would be a shame if no one turned up for the centenary celebrations. That is the sort of comment that is guaranteed to fire up my over-empathic steak. As I was worrying about how the evening would turn out for the organisers (who I in no way personally know), and thinking about how horrible it would be if no one turned up, we reached a traffic jam that extended out from the University campus.

Approaching the University one hour after the start of events

I think it is safe to say that people turned up.

I suspect the crowds were even beyond what the University had hoped for, with certain parts of the campus being difficult to walk through. One such section was the Winthrop Hall area, where a 20 minute light and sound show was played on five occasions over the night.

This isn't the usual exterior of the building...

The lighting transformed the hall into a series of images that covered Western Australia and the University from pre-British settlement, to the first days of the University, to the current day.

We watched through heads and trees, but even with those inconveniences the effects were stunning.

Our night also included a 30 minute silent film of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, accompanied by music from University musicians, which was shown because it too debuted 100 years ago. The celebrations continued until midnight, but we left after a fireworks display at 10.30pm. Even so, it was a late night by my standards!

Luminous swans.

I am glad for the University's sake that so many Perth people turned out to help celebrate the centenary, and glad for our sake that we went along. We hope to enjoy a few more free Festival events this month, but I suspect that none will be quite as atmospheric as Friday night.

Have you had any bonus local events lately? Or taken part in any centenary celebrations for organisations near you?

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