Glass festival dazzles with spectacle of light and music

Outdoor celebration experts Walk The Plank, who organised first festival finale in 2004, returned to stage the handover festival on Saturday night.

And what a spectacle it was.

Taking inspiration from Ruskin’s Seven Lamps, it represented the seven qualities which the renowned Victorian philosopher, architect, historian and writer John Ruskin felt should apply to architectural practice.

Guides, armed with bright lamps, each marked with one of Ruskin's qualities – sacrifice, truth, power, beauty, life, memory, and obedience – led the audience at The Ruskin Centre to the outdoor stage, where the centrepiece was a huge fire sculpture, In The Balance, by artist Felix Rowberry.

The evening began with live music from the Boat Band, and ended with striking music created with musician in residence, James Watts, working with Brendan Murphy whose glass instruments inspired a beautiful score.

Before the finale visitors were invited to share wishes and hopes for the next 20 years.

And each and every one of them - which included hopes for world peace and calls to protect the environment - were then committed to a blazing fire in a ritual act.

And then that sparked a series of dramatic firework displays, providing a symbolic backdrop to the In The Balance sculpture.

This year's four-day festival has not only celebrated the festival’s 20th year but recreated favourite moments from the past, welcomed current experts in glass from around the world and also pondered the future for glass in the UK.

After 20 years of hosting the festival in Stourbridge, the Ruskin Mill Land Trust is giving up organising the showcase this year to concentrate on its main work with young people with learning difficulties.

In future it will be run by the Seattle-based Glass Art Society - with the 2026 festival due to be hosted at St Helens, in the North West.