THOUSANDS of people attended opening night at this year’s Parrtjima – A Festival in Light, and as the free 10-night festival rolled on, thousands more turned out to soak up the spectacular installations under star-studded desert skies.

From April 12-21, both locals and tourists flocked to the Alice Springs Desert Park to watch the night sky above Mparntwe/Alice Springs light up against the backdrop of a 300-million-year- old canvas, the MacDonnell Ranges.

Celebrating this year’s theme, ‘The importance of interconnectedness across First Nations culture’, curator for Parrtjima, Rhoda Roberts AO, a Widjabul Wiyebal woman, said one of the best things about Parrtjima is that it’s a light festival like no other.

“The theme for this year’s Parrtjima festival centred around ‘interconnectedness’, and when we think of interconnecting we think of our ancestors, our matriarchs…