Hailed as one of Sussex’s favourite winter events, Wakehurst’s Glow Wild returns with new bespoke installations and festive dining experience

Release date: 20 July 2021

Wakehurst Glow Wild installation with white lights against dark blue night-time scene
Wakehurst Glow Wild installation © OGE Group

Glow Wild 

Select evenings: Thursday 25 November 2021 – Sunday 2 January 2022

Entry slots available between 16.30 and 20.10

Tickets from £14 adult/£10 child

Tickets on sale for Wakehurst/Kew members Tuesday 20 July/public Tuesday 27 July: www.kew.org/glowwild

Wakehurst, Sussex 

  • Major new light installations from award-winning artists explore the impact of the ‘anthropause’ (the global slowing of human activity) on nature
  • Brand new Winter Lodge transforms the Elizabethan Mansion into a spectacular dining experience complete with four-course festive feast
  • Wakehurst is home to the UK’s tallest living Christmas tree at 37m tall, and specially adorned with 1,800 energy-saving bulbs for Glow Wild

As night falls over Wakehurst, an enchanting trail filled with hand-crafted lanterns, mesmerising installations, and captivating projections winds its way through the wild woodlands and gardens. Glow Wild, returning for its eighth year, reflects on how nature responds when human activity slows down – a phenomenon known as the ‘anthropause’. Following an extended period of significantly diminished human activity, Glow Wild explores how the behaviour of plants and creatures has changed, and even thrived, during this time.

Nature’s nocturnal wonders

Inspired by this idea of nature flourishing whilst the world is sleeping, many artists celebrate natural nocturnal wonders – the creatures and plants that come alive in darkness. A major new installation comes from Brighton light artists Ithaca, who transform Wakehurst’s intimate Walled Garden into a magical multisensory and immersive experience. As visitors enter the tranquil Twilight Garden, they’ll encounter the dazzling bioluminescence of glowworms dancing across the flowerbeds and walls. But as inquisitive audiences approach to glance a closer look, they’ll witness the impact of their presence, with the once bright glow flickering away leaving temporary moments of hushed darkness.

At Mansion Pond, award-winning Brighton-based community arts charity SameSky champion the night-time super-pollinator, the moth, with a new installation of large moth lanterns sweeping over the water and swamp cypress. Though many pollinator communities benefited from the significant reduction in air pollution during the global lockdown, moth populations have continued to suffer significant declines. The situation is particularly bad in southern Britain, where moth numbers are down by 40% since the late 1960s [1]. Here, visitors can admire the ephemeral beauty of the winged wanderers reflected in the still waters, as they flit away from human encounters.

It begins with a seed…

Many artists this year find inspiration in seeds, exploring how even the smallest human encounter with nature can have far-reaching effects. Following the success of their award-winning Light a Wish installation, light designers OGE Group return with a spectacular new work made especially for Glow Wild. Suspended over Black Pond, as if a visitor has brushed past sending them into the air, OGE presents a series of Hoary Willowherb seedheads formed of steel tubes and coated with UV reactive paint or fabric. Lights shone upon them will reveal their whisper-thin, feather-like structure, creating an ethereal light as they appear to float down towards the Iris Dell.

The journey of seeds is also explored by digital display artists, The Colour Project, who have devised an animated three-part projection following the whimsical tale of a seed. Visitors will uncover the seed’s fate as they cross Wakehurst’s gardens, with each part of the story projected onto a natural canvas formed of dense conifers, spanning over 300m2 making this the largest natural screen in the UK.

In the Pleasaunce, part of Wakehurst’s Walled Garden, visitors will see the true potential of a seed in A Tree of Life, a bespoke large-scale installation from artist duo Simon Brockman and Martin Page in collaboration with artist Sarah Hall Baqai and lighting designer Ben Pacey. Crafted from willow, the large tree sculpture reclaims the formal garden, adorned with lantern leaves inspired by the leaf structures of different trees. The installation offers a tranquil space where visitors can observe the passing of time as the leaf colours change to reflect each season, and consider the rewilding of nature when free from human intervention.

When nature thrives

Nature further subverts formal spaces across Wakehurst’s Elizabethan Mansion and Mansion Lawn in two new works from artist-designer partnership AndNow. Ben Rigby and Mandy Dike imagine the Mansion rewilded with light boxes depicting tropical flowers blooming from the windows and bursting with colour as shadows play across the building’s façade. Sprawling over the lawn, spectacular spiralling tendril formations of fire bring the beauty of root systems above ground.

Completing the trail are a series of delicately crafted lanterns, from SameSky’s large herd of grazing deer, to Sarah Hall Baqai’s enchanting fungi lanterns slowly encroaching onto paths left untrodden during the anthropause. Visitors can also admire over 300 lanterns handmade by Wakehurst volunteers, including a group of mice who serve as guides through the wild landscape.

Towards the end of the Glow Wild trail, Wakehurst’s 37 metre giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) will welcome visitors as they return from their winter adventure. Lit with 1,800 energy-saving bulbs, the giant redwood is the UK’s tallest living Christmas tree, the perfect festive spot for hungry explorers to be rewarded with delicious treats and warming drinks over crackling firepits.

Festive dining

New to Glow Wild 2021, the Elizabethan Mansion centred at the heart of the garden will be transformed into Wakehurst’s very own Winter Lodge. Visitors who add the Winter Lodge experience to their booking will be transported to luxurious warmth and comfort as they enter the Mansion’s spectacularly decorated hall, a unique setting for family celebrations, special occasions, and romantic date nights. Offering an exclusive four-course festive feast, the Lodge is open to visitors to enjoy both at the beginning and end of their visit. Wakehurst recommends setting off on the lantern trail following the first two courses of sumptuous savoury fare, with the promise of dessert and a night cap to return to following their winter adventure.

Tickets will go on sale to Wakehurst and Kew members on Tuesday 20 July, and to the public on Tuesday 27 July. More details on dates and pricing below. To find out how to become a Wakehurst member, visit: https://www.kew.org/become-a-member-wakehurst

For more information or images, please contact Frances Teehan, Strategic Communications Manager at Wakehurst, on f.teehan@kew.org 

Ticket information 

Tickets will be available to the public on Tuesday 27 July here: kew.org/glowwild 
Entry time slots every 20 minutes between 4.30pm and 8.10pm on the following dates:   

Thursday 25 – Sunday 28 November 
Thursday 2 – Sunday 5 December 
Thursday 9 – Sunday 12 December 
Thursday 16 – Sunday 19 December 
Monday 20 – Thursday 23 December 
Monday 27 December – Sunday 2 January 

On select evenings we will be offering quiet sessions starting at 4.15pm.   
Gardens close 10pm   

Ticket prices 

Wakehurst or Kew member – Adult: £14 
Wakehurst or Kew member – Family (2 adults & 2 children): £46  
Adult: £16  
Children (4 – 16): £10  
Infants (under 4) and carers: Free  
Family (2 adults & 2 children): £50  

Car parking is included in the ticket price  

Pre-bookable lantern making kit £4.75  

[1] https://butterfly-conservation.org/moths/why-moths-matter/moths-in-decline

Notes to Editors 

Please note that Wakehurst is referred to just as ‘Wakehurst’, not ‘Wakehurst Place’. It is not a National Trust property. 

Address: Wakehurst, Ardingly, Haywards Heath, Sussex, RH17 6TN 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/wakehurst.kew 
Twitter: @wakehurst_kew 
Instagram: @wakehurst_kew 
Hashtag: #GlowWild 

Wakehurst, Kew’s wild botanic garden in Sussex is home to the Millennium Seed Bank and over 500 acres of the world’s plants including temperate woodlands, ornamental gardens and a nature reserve. It is situated in the High Weald of Sussex, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and focuses on wild plant collections. The Millennium Seed Bank houses and protects seed from the world’s most substantial and diverse collection of threatened and useful wild plants, making it the most biodiverse place on earth.    

RBG Kew receives just under half of its funding from Government through the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and research councils. Further funding needed to support Kew’s vital work comes from donors, membership and commercial activity including ticket sales.