Lightopia London – a beautiful, illumination event

[Ad- gifted experience] Each and every year, Dann, Claire and I are all go to Lightopia. We’ve been going for years; before it was at the Crystal Palace! There are actually two Lightopia events on at the same time; one in Manchester and one in London. As we are closer to the latter, that’s the one we always go to. This year, they actually invited us along, which was a super exciting opportunity. It is worth noting that there is parking at Lightopia, but you do need to purchase a seperate ticket and they do run out fast!

Lightopia is a long light trail, great for families, date nights for couples, or for individuals to just enjoy walking around. At the start of Lightopia there is a little fairground, with a bunch of rides for children. These rides have an additional price, but can be skipped over entirely. This is also where the start of the illuminations are; primarily in the circus theme. There are clowns, balloons and a circus tent all there at the start, leading you forward to the rest of the trail, which twists between different themes as you continue around. Each of the area has it’s own music that you will be listening to as you go, which feels magical.

There are lots of places to stop and take pictures along this walk, with so many different light sculptures. This year, they had a fallen planet which had something to do with a kids TV show, I was informed by the British people with me, which had character meet and greets for more photos! Their planet was stunning, with a boat at the back, and the characters looked like little mice. This was actually right next to the giant, well lit dragon with a moving head, so it’s a really stunning place to stop and enjoy more.

Along the walk there are a bunch of different stands; hot drinks being quite popular, along with sweets stands and donut stands. In one middle area there are few hot food stands, so we ended up getting some wraps. These were okay, but my chicken wrap was actually cold, which feels like a weird choice for a cold day. It did have a lot of seasoning and flavor though!

Along with many types of illuminations to look at in Lightopia, there are interactive elements. This year it was a bunch of drums that you can bash to make lights move up a giant flower – which is located by the food area. This was the only interactive piece, but with so many drums, it was very fun to play along with. There were also just so many lovely places to see illuminations in Lightopia; bees that are eating pizza, fairies reading books, mythical creatures, flowers that look like they are from magical places – there is just so much to see and experience.

Along with all of the beautiful lights, there is one point when you will be waking up a hill, and when we entered up the hill, there was a lot of wind coming our way, moving some sort of water to rain directly on us. This water is actually a feature of the event, a wall of water being sprayed across a pond with images being projected onto it. It might have been just the time we came, but the wind was so intense that the wall of water was just being moved all over us, making us very wet, and we could not really see the images on the water feature. There is the ability to walk on a water platform, so that you can then get closer, but with the amount of wind it did not feel fully through out.

This area is quite small though, and it opens up to more areas to see, including a little Halloween area and an area dedicated to Christmas-y themes. There are giant wings you can take pictures in front of and fields of color for you to take in. Despite going to Lightopia each year, the illuminations are never the same, always with new things to look at and enjoy. The end of Lightopia this year doesn’t just end either – there is an end area that you can take a picture at, and the ending is where the dinosaur statues are in Crystal Palace Park, which they have put colored lights on, so that you can really see them on the water.

Lightopia is a lovely event, that really is great for all ages. It is so magical to walk around this area, see all of the lights, and enjoy the evening. Having a hot drink while you walk around really feels like a magical, mysterious walk in a new world.

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!