If you are heading over to York this week we highly recommend that you stick around until night time has fallen and experience the city in a colourful new light. The Illuminating York Festival is back for 2009 and from now until 1st November the façades of ancient structures around the city will be used as canvasses for some very spectacular light art installations.

Must see pieces at this years festival include Vespertine by Bright White, a digital sound and video installation which will bring Kings Manor, and its corner of the beautiful Musuem Gardens behind the ruin’s of St Mary’s Abbey, to life with the magnificence of the city centres nocturnal wildlife. Or make your own mark on the Walls of Light by GaiaNova and OMAInternational where visitors will be able to use an interactive drawing board to add their very own masterpiece onto the Multangular Tower in Museum Gardens, alongside professional artists who will be contributing from around the world.

And it’s not just all light and sound, as the 28th October will see The Creative York Symposium explore  creative technologies and how they can enhance the cultural infrastructure of the city. ‘The Cultural Evolution’ will bring together a group of speakers to discuss how creative entrepreneurs and practitioners can inject innovation and enterprise into developing the cultural economy and infrastructure.