D-Lux Festival of Light returns to Dumfries town centre this May Bank Holiday weekend with their latest event ‘THE STREAM: VIVE!’ – a hosted, live-streamed video game-a-thon with invited guests exploring and celebrating links between gaming and gaming culture and mental health and wellbeing.
Presented and visible from a shop front window on Dumfries’ historic High Street, THE STREAM – VIVE! Is an expansion of a successful element of D-LUX Festival first piloted in 2019, and re-ran in 2020.
The Stream VIVE! programmer Liam Templeton commented: “The focus of The Stream is to get together, have some fun online and celebrate the positive roles gaming plays in helping us stay well and happy – from release and escape, to getting a bit of an adrenaline rush, to chilling out, staying in touch with each other and having new shared experiences, whether it’s with the person next to you on the couch or someone you’ve joined online. We’re also really excited to be joined by experts in mental health and wellbeing and academic researchers who have looked into the positive roles games play in our lives and how, as a medium, gaming can go places that other forms of entertainment cannot.”
2021 marks the fifth year of Dumfries’ annual Festival of Light, bringing warmth and curiosity to the High Street. However, instead of their usual January festival, D-Lux have instead spread their events out over the winter and spring with a range of light-based projects for the whole town to enjoy and take part in.
THE STREAM – VIVE! is the first of the D-Lux spring events, kicking off on Friday 30th April. It will include discussions with leading academics and game practitioners from the UK and beyond, sharing more about mental health and gaming, from the role of emotional journeys in games to how gaming can be used to help people on their recovery journeys. There will also be a ‘sofa chat’ with staff from Support in Mind Scotland’s C U Thru project on the plusses and minuses of gaming when it comes to mental health and wellbeing and their Top Tips for Tip-top Gaming, as well as an 8-Bit Kitchen Disco – encouraging you to get out of your game chair and bust your best moves to game-tune inspired EDM and techno! Those at home can also join an online, mass Minecraft re-build of central Dumfries. “We’ve abolished all planning laws and demolished the town centre down the street plan,” says D-Lux Technical Director John Wallace. “Help us Build Back Better!”
And this year, D-Lux are delighted to welcome Luci Holland to the Stream – a game-score composer who will be hosting ‘Press Play to Pause’ with her own compositions and a selection of others.
The Stream is being supported by EventScotland through Scotland’s Events Recovery Fund. Paul Bush OBE, VisitScotland’s Director of Events, said: “Events play an important role in our communities as they sustain livelihoods and bring social and economic change. EventScotland is delighted to be supporting The Stream through Scotland’s Events Recovery Fund, which is helping event organisers be innovative in their event delivery and pilot new ideas as they adapt to running events in the new norm.
“Scotland is the perfect stage for events and supporting events, including The Stream, is crucial in our recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.”
The Stream will be a virtual event, and participants are invited to join the conversation online via a Twitch link, Discord or in one of the D-Lux online gaming areas. The event will run from Friday 5pm 30th April to 5pm 1st May.
To access The Stream – VIVE! and to keep up to date with the latest news and announcements, head to their website: www.d-lux.org.uk
D-LUX is supported by The People’s Project, The Holywood Trust, Dumfries & Galloway Council, EventScotland and SP Energy Networks.
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