The many gifts of Lobethal

Lobethal is one of the secret yet beautiful hidden treasures of the Adelaide Hills, and the Lights of Lobethal is a very special time of year, when the local community turn it into an illuminated paradise for visitors to enjoy and celebrate Christmas time.

The event is created through community participation… with hundreds of homes being lit up by local businesses and families as a community gift to visitors from everywhere. It has been running for 70 years. The illumination of family homes across the Lobethal valley is more than a spectacular sight. It brings people together from near and far, to see what an amazing event is possible when a town and community work together.

This year the Lobethal community have extended the many offerings of their beautiful town to include new forms of lighting art that can light up other parts of the town.

Deck the Hall is a new element, lighting up the Art Deco facade of the Centennial Hall in the main street of Lobethal. This uses video projection to add coloured light, animation and imagery to this very special building.

A call to interested local residents to assist with ideas, artwork and imagery that shows the sparkling stide of Lobethal. This may be as simple as suggesting an idea for what you love most about Lobethal, what you think is unique about the area, or getting involved in a workshop to create a drawing or message to be displayed apon the building.

A class of reception students from Lobethal Primary School have agreed to work with illuminart to create digital artwork for the building projection. The students, and their teacher Suzanne Conboy will help to create a series of images on the theme of angels in the community.

Director of illuminart, Cindi Drennan says: “This festival is about the transformation of family homes with lighting, en masse. When we see what the people of Lobethal do by working together, it gives those of us from other places great hope for what we can achieve in cooperation and partnership, even when its not easy! I am inspired by this contribution and hard work of Lobethal and am honoured to contribute new ideas and technologies.”