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The Tiled Hall Café was host to the weird and wonderful on Friday 12th October, as part of Light Night, the fantastical after-hours extravaganza of magnificent projections, sleazy speakeasies, sinister boat trips, musical performances and artistic displays.
There was opera on the Library stairs, ballet in the Art Gallery and Burlesque in the Tiled Hall, as thousands of visitors followed the trail of the city's bizarre, secret, fantastic and surreal history and as the Victorian Tiled Hall itself remained hidden for over fifty years, it seemed most apt that the café play a prominent part in the celebrations.
Crowds of people came along to rest their feet and enjoy a glass of wine or cold beer along with a plate of the finest Yorkshire cheeses. Whilst around them, actors from the West Yorkshire Playhouse and Linus Twizzles Burlesque Cabaret Revue carried out short performances (much to the delight of many young and possibly older gentlemen!)
It was a busy night for Tiled Hall Café, but it was good to see people indulging in their surroundings and making the most of the lively atmosphere.
Leeds is the only UK city to stage Light Night, based on the European Nuit Blanche, Nuits blanches – meaning ‘sleepless nights’ in French – originated in Paris in 2002 inspired by descriptions of St Petersburg's ‘White Nights’ by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Spreading to Rome the following year, they have since been established in Brussels, Madrid, Barcelona amongst others.
When Light Night started in Leeds in 2005, a mere 200 people turned out for the event, in 2006 over 6,000 spread across the city. We’re still waiting to find out the figures for 2007 but we’re sure that that figure will definitely have risen. We want it to carry on rising so that the Leeds Light Night can stand up their with the capital cities of Europe and receive the international acclaim that it deserves.