Last Updated on 23 September 2025 by Colette
Lightwaves is a free outdoor light festival held in partnership with Quays Culture Programme around Salford Quays and MediaCity on the first weekend in December to brighten up those dark winter nights.
Running on the first weekend in December this year, Lightwaves returns to Salford for it’s 9th year. Because Lightwaves only runs for one weekend each year, we have always missed it until now!
We visited Lightwaves 2022 on the Friday night, hopping on the tram from St Peter’s Square to Media City UK. We had intended to get off at Harbour City to see the furthest away installations first and then make our way back to Media City to see the rest of the installations and get some food. As it was, by the time we made it up to Media City, the kids were quite hungry so we decided to eat first and then explore what Lightwaves 2022 had to offer.
We didn’t want to spend a fortune on food so went to Box on the Docks – which is basically a big tent with a couple of food trucks and a bar inside. The kids had Gyros from The Tasty Greek which were £7.50 each and they both really enjoyed those. Dave and I had bagels from Beigels – the salt beef bagel was pretty good (though nothing will live up to that Reuben I had at The Big Feastival!) and Dave enjoyed the hot brisket bagel.
Once we’d eaten, we checked out the map of Lightwaves 2022 online and made a start on trying to find the various installations – some were more obvious than others and we really should have made use of the what3words listings on the website.
Ben and Chloe’s favourite installation was Norman – basically a huge board that you could send messages to via a website. They took great pleasure in seeing their daft messages up on the board for all to see (in fact both of them carried on sending messages to Norman on the tram on the way home!) We actually found Norman was easier to read from a distance and he didn’t photograph very well.
Dave and I both really liked “End Over End” which was a huge neon slinky, and “Through No 4” certainly offered up some lovely photo opportunities. I liked “Our Beating Heart” but would have liked to have seen it in situ without the market stalls underneath to really see the full effect.
I think we saw 9 of the 13 installations in total – some were really impressive, others decidedly underwhelming (Garden Of The Deep a case in point) but for the sake of a free evening out, Lightwaves is definitely worth a look and we’d certainly visit again next year.
Tips for visiting Lightwaves 2022
- Download the what3words app so you can find the installations easily – this would be much easier than trying to suss them out on the map
- Wrap up warm!
- Hop the tram up rather than driving then you don’t have to worry about parking and can have a sneaky pint if you feel like it! (Trams are super regular through Media City)
- Have your camera at the ready, you’re going to want to take lots of photos
- Don’t forget to have a little browse of the Christmas Market outside Lowry Theatre while you’re there
- There’s plenty of options for food around Media City and and the Lowry – whether you want to grab a quick bite at Box on the Docks or a fancy cocktail at The Alchemist
- Lightwaves 2022 runs from 4pm to 10pm each day – obviously at 4pm it won’t be properly dark for you to enjoy the full impact of the lights so we would recommend going a little later if you can.
- Lightwaves is a free event with no booking required so you can just turn up and enjoy!
For more free Christmas events in Manchester this year, read this post next or click through here for Festive light trails near Manchester.
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