Festival of Flame: Illuminated Sheep

Friday 2nd December saw a memorising cultural experience at the Hexham Abbey.

You may have seen the Illuminated Sheep in the North East and Friday evening saw all the sheep together in the Hexham Abbey. Alongside the sheep was the Festival of Flame. Where 1000+ candles lit up the beautiful Hexham Abbey and Romans and Vikings walked around making us remember our history and heritage.

Inspired by the Lindisfarne Gospels, it was funny to see the flock around Hexham Abbey- whilst lights shone around the room and in the background we could hear lovely pieces of music. We also got to see the cover of the Gospels in the form of candles, that was stunning- especially in the Abbey I found myself lost for words.

Outside the Abbey saw Roman and Viking Fire Gardens , which were memorizing to see and the heat coming of the flames was rather intense. They were being accompanied by bagpipes playing a variety of tunes, it felt rather tribal.

We were about to leave but we heard that there was bite-sized performances of Mozart, Vaughan Williams and Pärt played on a piano and violin. That was rather spectacular and emotional to see a 5 star music performance all for free, I felt very honoured to have experienced that.

This event is part of the Hadrian’s Wall 1900 Festival.

Hosted by Hexham Abbey, Festival of Flame is organised by Hexham Community Partnership.

The Illuminated Sheep Art Trail in Hexham is organised by Hexham Culture Network on behalf of Hexham High Streets Heritage Action Zone (HSHAZ) and led by Queen’s Hall Arts. HSHAZ is an ambitious scheme seeking to deliver major improvements to boost the town centre and enhance the Conservation Area. It is a partnership between Historic England, Northumberland County Council, Hexham Town Council and the Hexham Community Partnership, working with the local community.