The NOVUM festival will close with an unprecedented public art spectacle on Sunday 9 August as thousands of breeze blocks are set up along a route through Newcastle for a city-wide domino run. Organisers say the sculptural installation will form a roughly 2.5km chain reaction winding past a number of the city's best-known sites before culminating at Newcastle Helix.
What will happen and when
Festival activity runs from Friday 7 to Sunday 9 August, but the finale promises to dominate the city on the Sunday. Spectators are invited to explore the route and watch the build-up from 2.30pm. The first domino is scheduled to fall at 4.30pm, initiating a chain that will travel east to west through the centre.
- Dates: NOVUM runs 7–9 August, domino event on 9 August
- Spectator access: from 2.30pm on Sunday
- Start time: first domino fall at 4.30pm
- Length: around 2.5km of dominoes
- Volunteers: more than 300 expected to help build the route
Route and locations
The route will thread through streets, public spaces and venues, pausing to incorporate playful large-scale structures at landmark points. Organisers say the line winds from near Newcastle City Library and passes venues such as the Theatre Royal and Tyneside Cinema, before moving through historic areas including Blackfriars and the Town Walls and finishing at Newcastle Helix.
| Section | Notable points |
|---|---|
| East end | Near Newcastle City Library |
| City centre | Theatre Royal, Tyneside Cinema, Grey's Monument |
| Historic stretch | Blackfriars, Town Walls |
| Finale | Newcastle Helix |
Scale, volunteers and atmosphere
More than 300 volunteers will help assemble the installation, which organisers describe as one of the most ambitious public artworks staged in the city and the wider North East. The dominoes are not small pieces of timber but breeze blocks, producing a striking visual and physical presence as they snake across the urban landscape. The project is intended both as a spectacle and a way of linking disparate parts of the city in a single, connecting action.
"After touring the world with our city-wide spectacle Dominoes, we are excited to bring it to the streets and people of Newcastle. Linking new and old, public and private; the spaces of the city centre will be brought together in a single connecting action of joyous disruption, and we invite"
The quote above is from Julian Maynard Smith, Station House Opera's artistic director, as part of the project's announcement.
What this means for locals and visitors
As a high-profile, free-to-view outdoor artwork, the domino run is likely to draw large crowds to central Newcastle. Spectators are encouraged to arrive early if they wish to explore the route, see sections being constructed and to view the installation before it is triggered. The event forms the dramatic close to a weekend of performances, workshops and family activities across the festival.
While the planning and stewarding of the route will be handled by organisers and volunteers, people attending should expect busy streets and the potential for restricted access in parts of the city centre during the afternoon and early evening.
The NOVUM domino run is a rare example of large-scale participatory public art staged across multiple urban locations. For Newcastle, the event not only promises a striking visual moment but also a narrative that connects several of the city's cultural and historic sites in one continuous, engineered gesture.
