A spectacular new Christmas trail at The Birmingham Botanical Gardens will be transforming the gardens into a magical illuminated wonderland when it opens on 29 November 2017.
The jewel-coloured trail will lead visitors through the Gardens, highlighting the rich Victorian history and heritage trees, all with the magical entertainment of the festive season.
The trail weaves across the landscape, telling little stories and encouraging visitors to interact with the seasonal themes. Installations that visitors will experience include illuminated scenes bringing to life The Twelve Days of Christmas; a tunnel of lights; a mistletoe moment, a scented fire garden and much more.
Visitors will also see an incredible Singing Tree. This magnificent coppice tree has five trunks! Using the latest technology this single coppice will appear to magically sing as visitors wander past. Inspiration will also be drawn from other festive pieces including Silent Night, O Holy Night and The Holly and the Ivy.
Leading the creative, design and implementation is Zoe Bottrell, who is responsible for the creative concepts enjoyed at the popular Christmas at Kew, whose trail has had over one million festive visitors!
The much-loved Botanical Gardens, with four Glasshouses, a Victorian park and bandstand, has provided horticultural inspiration for the Creative Designer.
Zoe plans to have every rib of the beautiful aviary aglow with programmable lights, whilst the entire lawn will be washed with fire-like illumination. This installation alone will feature over 60,000 individual lights. It will take the team over five days to rig the lighting using specialist riggers.
She says: “The Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Edgbaston, are an enticing canvas to create a Christmas story, featuring a beautiful aviary, to provide inspiration and illumination opportunities.”
Working in a heritage and botanical landscape creates its own challenges. From the vast amount of infrastructure, to getting hundreds of visitors into gardens whilst keeping them pristine in the midst of winter.
The trail has been specially designed for visitors of all ages to enjoy.
