Birmingham Botanical Gardens Winter Light Trail 2023

A captivating after dark, illuminated trail.

Set to ambient music, you will follow the trail as it meanders through the beautiful Botanical Gardens. Stunning lighting elements and light play will guide you along the way.

The trail is approximately 1.4km long and (depending on how quickly you walk through) will take circa 60-90 minutes to complete.

Car parking is not included in your ticket. There is no standard car parking at the venue. Limited blue badge parking is available on a first come first served basis, charges apply. The entire trail takes place outside (obviously during winter and after dark). It will be cold, dark and often wet! Please wrap up warm and wear sturdy footwear.

Please note we will not have 'traditional festive' decorations at Luminate and Father Christmas will not be there - he'll be far too busy getting everything ready at the North Pole!

For the safety and enjoyment of all our visitors, dogs are NOT permitted at Luminate*

*with the exception of Guide dogs and assistance dogs

There is a path all the way around, marked by festoon lighting throughout the duration. So just follow the festoon!

In order to ensure your own safety and enjoyment (and the safety of our other visitors and staff), all visitors must remain on the clearly marked trail at all times. All children and vulnerable adults must be closely supervised at all times. Luminate takes place in the winter, after dark. All areas other than the clearly defined trail will have potential trip hazards and risks to health and safety, which may be difficult to see during the time that Luminate is operational, so please stay on the path at all times and adhere to any instructions/advice given by our stewarding staff.

Conditions on the trail will be continually monitored by our onsite team, but we would remind all visitors that the event takes place in an outside, country setting over winter after dark. So please exercise caution when attending and supervise children and vulnerable adults at all times.

Some of our lighting installations are interactive, so you can enjoy some light play throughout your journey with us. All such installations will be easily identifiable and will have stewards stationed close-by to guide you with what to do. For your own safety and enjoyment, please do not touch any other lights/electrical installations and ensure children and vulnerable adults are supervised at all times, so as to ensure that they do not.

Smoking or Vaping is not allowed on the trail

In order to ensure that Luminate can be enjoyed by everyone to the upmost, it has been designed as a continuous experience, with strictly fixed entry time slots, starting from 4.30pm onwards, which must be pre-booked in advance.

To ensure the enjoyment and safety of all our visitors, we allocate a set number of tickets per timeslot and would ask that all visitors adhere to their booked timeslot. Our entry time slots are every fifteen minutes from 4.30-4.45pm through to 8.00pm – 8.15pm. At certain sites, we offer later slots on popular nights (Please check the site ticketing page for more info).

Please note that on the Christmas and New Year Holiday dates, Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve & New Year’s Day last entry to our trail will be at 8.00pm. On those dates, the trail itself will close promptly at 9.30pm. Please note on those dates that the food and drink concessions will close by 9pm.

Car parking at the venue is very limited and restricted to blue badge holders only (Please note spaces can not be booked or guaranteed). There is also limited free parking available at the University Car Park (Birmingham University City South Campus) across the road (approx. 100m from the Botanical Gardens) and at Edgbaston High School next door. Where possible we recommend you travel to the venue via public transport.