Newcastle has been trying to make itself into a Christmas destination in the last few years, rebranding, making maps and signage available all over town, expanding the Christmas market itself, and adding on satellite events. Its not perfect, and not for everyone, but overall it seems to be working. One of the additions this year is Northumbria University’s Enchanted City.

We went on the first night, a Thursday, and in the last entry at 7:45pm, so it was pretty quiet. There were just shy of a dozen exhibits, all space-themed and using a nice range of art including projections, music, puppets, sculpture, and interactive installations.

We more or less followed the map, though there was no recommended order, starting with Clear the Way at the entrance gate, which used the Kessler syndrome as a metaphor for emotional decluttering and encouraged us to write down something we wanted to leave behind, we sat in the watched Ascendance projected in a church, which was quite soothing. We wandered the campus enjoying several music and light projections, interacted with the Starmongers by Moving Parts, which are a local puppet art organization which host a festival in the city every year at Easter which we always have to miss because of Eastercon, so I was excited to see them there. Then we wrapped up with the lovely armillary sphere-inspired Terra Nova by Bethan Maddocks, and what was probably our favourite, the expansive fire-and-pun riddled A Peace of Spacetime, by AndNow Art which made us laugh out loud multiple times while also leaving room for some thoughtfulness.

All in all we probably spent an hour on it and really enjoyed it, there was also supposed to be a craft tent and a couple of food stalls (just described as festive food and drink) by the Student Union, but they were closed by the time we were there. For the £12.50 ticket price it might have felt a bit sparse, but we had a discount which brought it under then and it felt good for that – I expect if there had been more people there and we’d had a chance to buy a mulled wine and do a little crafting that would have made it feel more complete.

Hopefully it was busier for the rest of its run, and they can put it on again next year, I’d definitely go back for more.