Bridges Festival

Photos from the first day of the Bridges Festival, Newcastle Gateshead (Saturday 4 August 2012).
Now in its second year, the festival unleashes two days of entertainment along the banks of the River Tyne, with art, street theatre, dance and other performances, surrounded by buildings such as the Sage, Baltic, and the Millenium and Tyne bridges. Saturday evening finished with Over and Out, a mesmerizing piece of outdoor theatre by Walk the Plank, staged both beside and on the river itself, and increasingly engulfed in pyrotechnics.


Rainbow over the Millenium Bridge, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, and the Sage

The Sage, iconic building and outstanding concert venue, overlooking the Tyne

Over and Out recounts the story of a lighthouse during a time of decreasing river traffic, its light fading until the arrival of three lighthouse keepers.
Final preparations during the afternoon

The performance begins after dark

Releasing flares on the river

Pyrotechnics


Fireworks and Olympic rings on the Tyne Bridge (the Olympic football quarter finals were played in Newcastle on Saturday)

Photos © Rudolf Abraham. No unauthorized use.