2021-11-19
“VOCATIONAL STUDENTS ILLUMINATED THE WHOLE CITY”
Every year, students from Alströmergymnasiet build up Scandinavia’s largest light show together with lighting designers from all over the world. – The students practice problem solving in groups, practice language and learn to see light and sound in a new way, says vocational teacher Ulf Carlsson.
David Blomgren jumps in the cold water in Lillån. He veers away from the seagrass and lays the thick electric cable right on the bottom under the bridge at Stortorget in Alingsås. It is one of all the preparations for the city to bathe in light for five weeks this autumn.
– The trousers are certainly not completely waterproof, he states and pulls the waist-high sea boots tighter around him. Friends Joel Gudmundsson and Kevin Jansson laugh a little and check the connections in the box with the speaker equipment. All three of them attend the third year of the Electricity and Energy program at Alströmergymnasiet and for two weeks they help to set up light and sound for “Lights in Alingsås”. The event has been around for 21 years and has over time developed into Scandinavia’s largest light festival with around 80,000 visitors a year. The students from Alströmergymnasiet have been involved for almost as long and the school is in its seventeenth year as a co-organizer.
– We received the question from Alingsås Energi and I answered yes without even checking with the principal first, says the vocational teacher Bernt Johansson.
– I saw so many positive ingredients. The students get to work with something that they can show, they get to collaborate with lighting designers and lighting students from all over the world and an extra merit on their CV.
Colleague Ulf Carlsson agrees:
– They practice problem solving in groups, practice languages and learn to see light and sound in a new way. In addition, they will take part in something that puts Alingsås on the map and that the whole town is happy and proud of.
Continue reading the full article here in Swedish.
Text: Carina H Ahnstedt
Photo: Emelie Asplund