The Context
Power NI is Northern Ireland’s leading energy company, and have been supplying electricity across the province for over 80 years. They’re the biggest electricity supplier in NI with over half a million customers, but what really matters to them is the excellent service and year round savings they offer their customers.
Cathedral Quarter Trust is a non-profit organisation committed to supporting arts, culture and heritage in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter through promoting and organising activities, raising awareness and encouraging public participation, and facilitating co-operation amongst stakeholders.
Power NI first partnered with Culture Night in 2018 to deliver the spectacular illumination ‘Lighting Up Generations’ to an audience of over 40,000 people.
From the beginning of their relationship, the concept of ‘light’ has informed the conversations between these partners. The challenge for 2019 was finding a way to present this theme in a fresh, relevant way to crowds visiting the city centre, specifically the Cathedral Quarter, on Culture Night and Culture Day.
The Solution
Both Culture Night and Power NI have a strong emphasis on community engagement within their core business objectives and share an ambition to create a positive event that celebrates the city and its citizens, encouraging their audiences and families to socialise together, to meet new people and to feel a part of their city.
For 2019, the partners secured funding from Arts & Business NI, to create a site based project: the ‘Power NI Presents Stage’ and ‘The Light Gardens’, reflecting Power NI’s status as Northern Ireland’s leading electricity energy provider in a uniquely creative and innovative way. The ‘Power NI Presents Stage’ featured the best of funk and soul on Culture Night and the best of emerging artists on Culture Day with a subtle but strong emphasis on female led bands and producers.
This high level production achieved both partners’ objectives, successfully creating a family friendly, accessible, playful and colourful space in a usually unanimated part of the Cathedral Quarter. In addition to presenting a stellar line up, the project also employed upwards of 40 artists, AV companies, staging companies and stage managers.
“Our partnership with Power NI has been a major highlight of Culture Night Belfast over the last two years. It has allowed us to jointly create some truly memorable experiences for our audiences and customers that have showcased our fantastic local arts, culture and creativity and have reinforced Power NI’s brand as one that is inclusive, is engaged with the community and is a committed supporter of culture and arts.
It is a true partnership in every sense - we develop ideas between us and Power NI’s creative input is a hugely important part of what has made this relationship so special. We at Culture Night Belfast are immensely proud of both ‘Lighting Up Generations’ (2018) and 'Power NI Presents…' (2019) and in what we and Power NI have jointly created - as partners, friends and creative collaborators.”
Susan Picken, Director, Cathedral Quarter Trust
“Teaming up with Culture Night for a second year was a no-brainer for us. Our core values are about promoting togetherness and accessibility – Culture Night’s inclusive nature ensured both of these values were addressed seamlessly. Building on the success of Year One’s ‘Lighting Up Generations’ projection show on St. Anne’s Cathedral, we used Year Two as a way to support and connect with the best emerging music talent from Northern Ireland. The culmination of this was the Power NI Presents Mini Musical Festival in Cathedral Gardens.
The showcase not only highlighted our brand in a unique and genuine way, but cemented us as a true friend and partner of the Arts in the business community.”
Gemma-Louise Bond, Power NI
