2026 Programme

Our 2026 programme spans three evenings of light, play and discovery across Lincoln.

 A city-wide celebration that’s bigger, brighter and more playful than ever, with interactive installations and plenty of “wow” moments for all ages.

Some of Lincoln’s most iconic locations will be reimagined after sunset. From Lincoln Castle and Lincoln Cathedral to the Cornhill, City Square, High Street and surrounding streets buzz with creative surprises. Expect illuminated trails, colourful projections and hands-on artworks that invite you to explore, touch, listen and play.

Featuring local and national artists, this year’s programme invites you to experience Lincoln in a new light.

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Walking Histories

Lincoln Free Walking Tour
Outdoor
19th, 20th & 21st February
Walking tour experience through the historic streets of Lincoln alongside the Reimagining Lincolnshire project, unearthing and illuminating hidden heritage stories in the city, in particular focusing on historically marginalised communities.

The People’s Market

Human Studio
Indoor
21st February
The People’s Market transforms Lincoln’s historic marketplace into a living archive of everyday activism. At Frequency, it will present a work-in-progress AR prototype, inviting audiences to shape its design through collective community feedback, exploring stories of past and present activism through play, discovery, and interactive storytelling.

The Fox and the Otter

Lumo Workshop
Outdoor
19th, 20th & 21st February
The Fox & The Otter is an illuminated walkabout performance inspired by the viral CCTV footage of a fox and an otter who unexpectedly befriended each other on Lincoln High Street. Recreated as glowing puppet lanterns, the two animals travel together through the high street, bringing their story of unlikely friendship to life.

The FlightPaths Trail

Electric Egg
Outdoor
Launching 19th February
A free immersive audio-visual trail launching as part of the Reimagining Lincolnshire project, exploring Lincoln’s WWII histories through geo-located stories and films via the Echoes Explorer app.

The Finish Line

Flexer & Sandiland
Outdoor
19th, 20th & 21st February
Celebrate reaching the top of Lincoln’s famous Steep Hill! The Finish Line is an interactive installation where your arrival is met with cheers and a round of applause. Take a moment to enjoy being recognised for your climb and join in the shared celebration at the summit. A playful tribute to determination and the thrill of reaching the top.

Talking Heads

Impossible Arts
Outdoor
19th, 20th & 21st February
Imagine three towering Easter Island style heads that talk and sing, and one of them suddenly has your face. Step up, speak or sing, and watch your expressions appear on cue. Talking Heads is playful, surprising and impossible not to join in.

SubFrequency Games

Earth Bound Misfits
Outdoor
19th, 20th & 21st February
SubFrequency Games is a high-energy outdoor street party where bass, play and performance collide. Expect big sound, crowd challenges, theatrical hosting and moments of joyful chaos that pull everyone into the experience. It’s loud, welcoming and irresistibly playful - When the Dj’s hit play, we play to win!

Serving Sounds

Working Boys Club
Outdoor
19th, 20th & 21st February
Step up, grab a glass, tap a beer mat, and drop a beat. Serving Sounds is a joyful pop-up bar where everyday objects trigger iconic grooves, thumping basslines, and unexpected musical magic.

Resonant Pulse

Lucy Mager
Outdoor
19th, 20th & 21st February
Resonant Pulse is a multi-channel sonic installation recontextualising the sounds of Cleethorpes beach to create an interactive and meditative experience. Speakers will be arranged in a circle, facing inward, inviting the audience to stand or move within. Sounds and frequencies will interact within this circle for a full-body audio experience

Migratory Light

Chris McClean
Outdoor
19th, 20th & 21st February
A walk-through artwork that translates bird migration into moving light. Drawing on the rhythms of the Humber Estuary, the work invites audiences to step into unseen journeys that connect the city to distant coasts, revealing migration as a shared, living process.

Light Painting

Access Creative
Outdoor
19th, 20th & 21st February
An open, all-ages light painting workshop inviting audiences to play, experiment and create with light. Participant will explore colour, movement and long-exposure photography in a fun, accessible way, discovering how imagination and technology combine to transform light into art. In addition, Access Creative will also be joined by Not Quite North, a specialist film lab and vintage camera shop based in Lincoln. They’ll be at Saltergate across all three days, offering their expertise on how to utilise analogue cameras and various hands-on techniques!

Light Gliders

Circo Rum Ba Ba
Outdoor
19th, 20th & 21st February
The Light Gliders spin elegantly into view glowing like lanterns and whizzing around the audience full of mischief and grace. They light up a space with their choreographed colour changing lights, magically turning around the audience, dancing between them, a mixture of ballet dancer and sprite. The Light Gliders are tiny, only four feet high and audiences delight in spinning them round then letting them go to whizz off at speed.

LIGHT BOAT

The Institute for Crazy Dancing
Outdoor
19th, 20th & 21st February
LIGHT BOAT is the slowest ride on earth: rock gently; turn slowly; and listen to the LB Alphabet as the drum beats and the chains rattle. At the end of the journey, participants are invited to file their Forecast for the future in the Ship’s Log.

Lantern Making Workshop

Lumo Workshop
Indoor
17th and 18th February
Join Lumo Workshop on the Mezzanine Floor of the Cornhill market to create your own small pyramid lanterns! These beautiful lanterns can be personalised and crafted by participants of all ages. Once made, you can collect them on the festival nights from the Cornhill Market to carry through the city, helping to light up Lincoln and become part of the event. A hands-on, creative way to bring the festival to life and join in the celebration of light and community.

Infinite Museum

MBD
Indoor
19th, 20th & 21st February
Infinite Museum is a multi-person Virtual Reality (VR) experience inviting audiences to explore short stories rooted in local heritage. Structured as a virtual museum, each room transports visitors to different moments and environments.

FlightPaths – Installation

Electric Egg
Indoor
19th, 20th & 21st February
The FlightPaths installation was created as part of a collaborative process between artists Electric Egg and the children of Westgate Academy Primary School. The installation explores the themes of home and journeys and looks at the contribution of international aircrew in ‘Bomber County’ during the Second World War.

Drift

William Lindley
Indoor
19th, 20th & 21st February
Drift is a moving image projection exploring Lincoln and Lincolnshire, connecting the county to the city, taking in various locations, including Horncastle, Grimsby, Boston, Spilsby, Scunthorpe, Sleaford, Gainsborough, the fens and the wolds. It will be projected within St Mary Le Wigford, onto screens with a soundscape.

Dragon’s Breath

ITHACA at the Castle
Outdoor
19th, 20th & 21st February
ITHACA Studio will be returning for Frequency 2026, lighting up Lincoln Castle with a new immersive experience created especially for the festival.

DJ and Beatbox Workshops

Noise Academy
Indoor
21st February
Noise Academy's open DJ and beatbox workshops are fun, high-energy sessions where young people can explore rhythm, sound, and performance in a relaxed, inclusive environment. Participants learn core skills, experiment creatively, and build confidence through hands-on music making, guided by experienced professional tutors.

Circa

Limbic Cinema
Outdoor
19th, 20th & 21st February
A mesmerising installation that will transform the Deans Green at Lincoln Cathedral, and invite audiences to connect with the biological patterns and rhythms of nature.

BOUNDING LIGHT

Vent Media
Outdoor
19th, 20th & 21st February
Bounding Light shows how light can be shaped by edges, lines, and boundaries. By working within the building’s existing structure, the artwork invites people to see a familiar historic building in a new way — not as something fixed and unchanging, but as a surface that can be brought to life through light and movement.

ARCADE

DARKFIELD
Indoor
Friday 13 - Sunday 22 Feb, 12-8pm (Closed Mon 16 Feb)
DARKFIELD’s ARCADE is an interactive experience that uses the aesthetic of 1980s video games, complete darkness, 360 degree binaural sound and sensory effects to immerse players in a war-torn world through which they can choose their own path.

An Elevated Platform

Flexer & Sandiland
Indoor
19th, 20th & 21st February
A dysfunctional Karaoke for the body, An Elevated Platform echoes a world saturated with social media, where every action we make is both celebrated and scrutinised in equal measure.

4 Bit Playground

Pather and Johnston
Indoor
19th, 20th & 21st February
4 Bit Playground is an interactive kinetic installation of autonomous cube-creatures that respond to human presence and each other. Each cube has programmed personalities that generate social behaviours, transforming their space into an ecosystem that questions the expectations we place on machines, our relationship with them and collective machine agency.