Walking with Ghosts, a multimedia immersive art experience exploring the legacy of war, returns to the Folkestone Harbour Arm for Remembrance Weekend 2023.
Led and produced by the University of Kent in partnership with the Imperial War Museum (IWM) 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund, the experience features a marching ‘ghostly army’ representing the Imperial forces’ dead from the first world war projected onto a wall of the Folkestone Harbour Arm Railway Station – where many of those who departed for the war left from.
Following last year’s success – which saw some 20,000 visitors over Remembrance weekend – the installation returns to Folkestone on Saturday 11 November. The projection will be screened on Saturday and Sunday between 15:30 and 23:00.
Professor Helen Brooks, Walking with Ghosts producer and Professor of Cultural and Creative History at the University of Kent, said: ‘We’re delighted to be bringing Walking with Ghosts back to Folkestone Harbour Arm this November. Since the premier in 2022 we have been working with local community groups and organisations to embed Walking with Ghosts within a wider programme of remembrance activity in Folkestone and we look forward to seeing this come to life next month.’
This year, the Harbour Arm will also be hosting a number of additional events and activities across the site to mark the return of the project.
At 16:00 on Saturday 11 November the Harbour Screen will show Peter Jackson’s ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’, the incredible documentary that uses colourised footage and stories from the front to show trench warfare from a new perspective. On Remembrance Sunday the Harbour Screen will screen the broadcasts live from London.
Remembrance weekend will also see the return on The Mole Café on The Harbour Arm; a recreation of the small pocket of sanctuary that served tea and cake to soldiers just before they left for France, many of whom would never return.
Paulo Kingston-Corriea, General Manager of Folkestone Harbour & Seafront Development Company said: ‘We are delighted to be hosting the return of the Walking With Ghosts project in the Harbour Station, the project brings the community together to experience a poignant artwork in a historic and appropriate setting. We are deeply proud of the work we have done to restore and preserve the heritage and history of our site which played a significant role in the First World War.’
Walking with Ghosts is a free event, open to all. If you would like to find out more or take a look at the event from last year visit the Walking with Ghosts website.