Thousands of flaming torches will light up the former Western Front in Belgium on October 17th 2014, commemorating the line as it stood 100 years ago when the war of movement gave way to trench warfare.
The organisers of Light Front ’14 are promising a ‘deeply reflective moment,’ with all attention focused on the victims of the conflict.
In 1914, the flooding of Belgium’s coastal plains on the orders of King Albert I during the First Battle of Ypres closed the last gap in the front, denying a German breakthrough.
More than 8,000 torchbearers will illuminate the route for the Centenary, a dramatic visible reminder of how troops from both sides could see each other’s lights along the front.
The line will stretch from Nieuwpoort beach on the North Sea Coast to Ploegsteert, near the French border. There will also be artistic fire installations in the nine municipalities involved.
The names of the 600,000 people who died on Belgian soil will also be projected onto the Albert I Monument in Nieuwpoort, the Yser Tower in Diksmuide and the Belfry in Ypres.
Afterwards, the Belgian rock singer Arno will perform at a concert near the locks at Ganzenpoot in Nieuwpoort.
Light Front ’14 has been organised as part of Gone West, the artistic commemoration of the Great War in the Province of West Flanders. More details can be found here.
Sources: Gone West/Licht Front, Visit Flanders
Images courtesy of Gone West/Light Front
Posted by: Peter Alhadeff, Centenary News