Houghton Festival 2025: New Commissions by Chris Levine and EBBA

The Houghton Festival, an annual electronic music and visual arts event set within the 400-hectare sculpture park of Houghton Hall in Norfolk, England, returns for its eighth edition from August 7 to 10, 2025. Founded by DJ and artist Craig Richards, the festival announces two major new artistic commissions. Light artist Chris Levine (Ontario, Canada, 1960) presents three installations, including a site-specific laser work titled Full Beam, featuring a vintage Volkswagen camper van floating on Houghton Lake, transformed into a kinetic light sculpture. Levine also debuts Higher Power, a high-power laser spanning the festival grounds. The second commission is Pulse, a permanent installation by London-based architecture and design studio EBBA, led by Benni Allan. Pulse converts bioelectric signals from trees into changing light and sound, inviting visitors to sit beneath a sculptural canopy. The festival's 2025 lineup includes the most debuts in its history, with techno icon Richie Hawtin headlining, alongside returning artists Ben UFO, Palms Trax, and Ricardo Villalobos. Additionally, a permanent sculpture by Craig Richards, originally created as a tribute to the late musician Andrew Weatherall and titled Tree comes down, Andrew goes up, will be relocated to the dance floor near the bar where Weatherall often stood. Richards emphasizes the festival's commitment to presenting new art annually.