After last year's success, Lublin's Illumination Park returns in a completely different luminous guise - with a new story and a longer tour. The theme of this year's walk is the "Secret Garden", which on the one hand promises an atmosphere of mystery, magic and surprise, and on the other shows the extremely varied themes of the individual zones, of which there are as many as 14 this year! The highlight of each zone is a tree selected and described within the educational trail, which introduces us to the mysterious world of ancient beliefs and legends associated with it. During the walk, we can visit, among others, the Tea Land, the Thunderer Zone, the Illusion Zone or the Land of Honey. What else? The organisers have prepared a surprise for art lovers this year. While strolling through the "Secret Garden", we may come across original art installations by Polish artists, i.e. Jarosław Koziara's Bats, Martha Mulawa's large throbbing Heart or colourful Abstract Masks and Olena Glinka's Life-giving.
The staff of "Botanika" and Lumina company also took care of the educational dimension of this year's attractions. Thanks to selected and developed educational paths, we can learn and discover many interesting facts about the plants and shrubs growing in the UMCS Botanic Garden, presented in an accessible way for both children and adult nature enthusiasts. You will find out, for example, about the properties of the Hawthorn Tree, what Van Gogh has in common with the Giant Hedgehog, which tree smells like biscuits, and which tree used to be used to make instruments.
The official opening of the Illumination Park was preceded by a press conference attended by: UMCS Rector Prof. Radosław Dobrowolski, Dr. Grażyna Szymczak, director of the UMCS Botanical Garden, and Jan Szagdaj, president of the Lumina company. The briefing took place in the Kościuszko Manor House on the grounds of the Botanic Garden.
- I am glad that once again, after a few months' break, we are meeting in the same place and time to continue the excellent Lumina Park project in the Botanic Garden of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University - emphasised the rector, Prof. Radosław Dobrowolski, during the meeting, and added that this idea of developing the Garden's space in autumn and winter was very well received, not only by the staff of our University, but above all by the residents of Lublin and the entire Lublin voivodeship.
Lublin's first Illumination Park was launched a year ago, and during the four months of its operation, it was visited by almost 60,000 people. - Many people came to the UMCS Botanical Garden for the first time thanks to the Illumination Park and then visited it in the spring and summer seasons," emphasised Dr Grażyna Szymczak, director of the UMCS Botanical Garden. - The 60,000 people who came to visit the Illumination Park and the more than 60,000 who came to the 'normal' garden last year show that the Botanic Garden is needed: both the winter, 'other' one, with illuminations, and the daytime, spring-summer one," she added, pointing out that the Lublin Illumination Park is distinguished by the fact that both the idea and the scenario were created on the spot, "so it is not a fairy tale transferred from a book".
The Garden's director also drew attention to the educational dimension of the event:
- We invite you to come for recreation to have a nice time, but we also want to teach you a bit about nature in such a non-intrusive, gentle and not difficult way. We talk a lot about plants, but this year we are also accompanied by animals.
- "The Secret Garden" is a completely new exhibition, much larger than last year and with an extended, kilometre-long route. It counts 110 led sculptures, 95 per cent of which do not repeat last year's. It is a completely new story, a new path," emphasised Jan Szagdaj, president of Lumina, the company that prepared the exhibition. - This year we went very much into artistic expositions. Mr Jarosław Koziara not only decorated Lublin for us, he decorated our parks. We can promote Polish artists," he added.
Jan Szagdaj also referred to the energy crisis: - Such a park uses really little electricity, as it is 25 kWh. To illustrate how much it is, such an average restaurant consumes, say, 60 kWh. By contrast, one football match at the National Stadium consumes so much electricity that we could power our Illumination Park with that kind of energy for three months.
The Illumination Park - Lumina Park Lublin will be open to all interested visitors until the end of February 2023, from Tuesday to Sunday, from approximately 16:00 to 21:00 (last entry at 20:00).
Tickets are available at bilety.luminapark.pl and directly at the UMMCS Botanical Garden box office.
Text: Dominika Winiarska
Photo: Bartosz Proll
