I concur with what Marc said about VR talking about his art, the left had projection could have been made better use of – but the variety of music the commentary produced was enjoyable. For a £5 each the whole thing was reasonable value (although the extra £4 to see the limited lights at the Minster wasn’t). The fact that it was sold out on Friday, apart from the 9:30 showing must mean something, and it was reasonably easy to get around without any massed hoard hogging a viewpoint.

Conclusion? It was different. Bringing psychedelia to York at Samhain is a worthy concept. Listening to ‘Night on a Bare Mountain’ recalled the spirits rising in Disney’s Fantasia. Whilst less magical and more amusing for adults, children must have enjoyed it?

The thing that let the display down was the centrepiece: the projection of a selection of Vic Reeves’ drawings animated onto the front of the Yorkshire Museum. While it looked and sounded great, with vivid colours and quirky imagery, it was utterly ruined by his own narration. Possibly the low point of his commentary, which was essentially Vic’s explanation of his own artwork, was when he railed – with no apparent hint of self-awareness – against the curators of art museums for attempting to explain art, rather than leaving it to the interpretation of the viewer. I only wish he’d taken his own advice. The semi-coherent and hypocritical ramblings emanating from Reeves’ disembodied giant head were a cringe-worthy distraction from his (really very likeable) artwork.

The event was not helped by the heavy rain that made some parts of the site very muddy which, as some areas were – necessarily – dark, made getting around quite tricky. There were also many people using antisocially large umbrellas which obscured their own view of much of the lighting, blocked the narrow and crowded pathways and threatened to poke anyone over six foot tall in the eye. That’s not really the fault of the organisers though.

Anyone who doubts it was a Wonderland though should really have experienced it, as I did, with a small child. My nineteen-month old wandered around slack-jawed and utterly transfixed. His under-five ticket was also free.

I have to say that as an experience, £5 for the two of us to be entertained for an hour probably represents quite good value for money. The problem, however, lies in the comparison with last year’s animation onto the Castle Museum which was both utterly spectacular and free. Pretty much anything attempting to follow that will feel like an anticlimax.