Art is woven through First Light Festival 2026 from beach to gardens. Suffolk sculptor Laurence Edwards returns to Lowestoft’s South Beach with The Long Wait, a haunting bronze figure — horned and almost otherworldly — suspended in a state of quiet endurance, its raw, tactile surfaces blurring the line between the human and the mythic.
Alongside it, The Long Wait – Gathering invites festival-goers to become part of the work itself: collecting pebbles from the shore and placing them into a specially created companion sculpture, building a collective, evolving artwork that marks the beginning of a new chapter as Messums East prepares to open in the town. Artist Maddie Exton adds another dimension to the beachfront with Meet Me at First Light, a 20-metre aerial banner installed along the coastline — a work that plays with ephemerality, holding a typically fleeting message in place to mark the solstice sunrise and create a meeting point for the community.
Meanwhile, in the calm of Kensington Gardens, the festival’s annual Noon to Moon open-air exhibition transforms the space into a vibrant outdoor gallery, this year curated by award-winning sculptor and video artist Alexander Costello, featuring work from a rich mix of local and regional artists alongside contributions from community groups and schools.
Easterly Artists also feature in Kensington Gardens, with twin pieces in the Japanese Gardens and further work at 303 Projects Contemporary Art Gallery on Kirkley High Street.