Frequency light festival returns to city

The Frequency light festival returns to Lincoln in February to bring three evenings of illuminated wonder and digital creativity to the city.

Frequency 26 will run daily between 5.30pm and 9.30pm to light up Lincoln Cathedral and Castle, the Cornhill, City Square, High Street with other attractions from Thursday to Saturday, February 19-21.

The biennial festival is paying its eighth visit to Lincoln, having first launched in 2011, and has a new format that organisers, Threshold Studios, say will fuse ‘Frequency’s creativity and community spirit with the magic of Lincoln Lights, creating a city-wide celebration of light, art, and innovation that’s bigger, bolder and brighter than ever’.

Sam Lindley, CEO, Threshold Studios said: “Frequency is about bringing people together through shared moments of wonder, playfulness and creativity.

“This edition of the festival will provide a genuine city-wide spectacle to brighten the winter nights and will showcase some fantastic interactive artworks and installations from across the UK as well as experiences created just for Frequency.

“But it is also a proud celebration of Lincolnshire –with digital installations highlighting its military heritage, its unique coastline and even the viral 2025 moment where a fox and an otter formed an unlikely alliance to explore the city’s streets after dark. We are thrilled to be working with partners to bring these new experiences to this beautiful city.

Cllr Joshua Wells, Portfolio Holder for inclusive sustainable economic growth at City of Lincoln Council said: “Following the success of last year's Lincoln Lights, we're thrilled that Threshold will be delivering an expanded programme for Frequency Festival this February.The city-wide event does an incredible job of bringing Lincoln to life, with many vibrant installations and attractions for families of all ages. It's great to see the Be Lincoln Town Deal help support these exciting, free events, truly adding to the city’s tourism offer.”

Programme highlights include:

• ITHACA Studio will be returning to Frequency to light up Lincoln Castle with a new immersive experience created especially for the festival that pays homage to the castle’s resident dragons “Lucy” and “Norman”. It will be a fire-themed show using animated lights, sound design and special effects to create a spectacular event suitable for family audiences
• William Lindley’s ‘Drift’, a moving-image projection connects Lincoln with towns and landscapes across Lincolnshire—from Grimsby and the fens to the Wolds—through a layered visual journey and accompanying soundscape inside St Mary Le Wigford Church.
• Limbic Cinema’s ‘Circa’ is an intriguing large-scale touring light sculpture exploring nature’s behaviour with light
• Lumo Workshop presents the Fox and Otter walkabout performance in tribute to the viral video CCTV footage from November2025
• Serving Sounds is a mobile sound bar built by Working Boys Club, this interactive installation transforms everyday bar objects into beat-making machines
• 4BIT Playground by Pather & Johnston is an interactive kinetic installation in Cornhill Market. The autonomous cube-creatures respond to human presence and each other
• Electric Egg’s Flightpaths is an audio and video trail through historic and contemporary Lincoln that brings to light the personal stories of servicemen and women from former colonies who served in the Lincolnshire area during the Second World War. It is commissioned as part of the National Lottery Heritage Funded project ‘Reimagining Lincolnshire’. 
• Award-winning company Darkfield will present ‘Arcade’ which uses the nostalgic aesthetic of 1980s video games.
• Access Creative College are partnering with Frequency for the first time offering an open, all-ages light painting workshop inviting audiences to play, experiment and create with light. 

Frequency Festival 2026 is backed by Arts Council England and with support through commissioning funding from Be Lincoln: the Lincoln Town Deal Programme and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Frequency 2026 is delivered in partnership with the City of Lincoln Council, Lincoln BIG, Lincoln Castle, and Lincoln Cathedral.

Pictures: Electric Egg