IF there’s one thing the Canberra public should expect from the 2017 “Enlighten” festival it is that it will enlighten us – and light up the buildings in the parliamentary precinct.

Top on the list of enlightening events curated by creative director Nicole Warren will be “Pedaleando Hacia El Cielo” (Cycling to heaven), an aerial act by Belgian musical theatre company Theater Tol who, we are told, will move between the earth and the sky, carried by the sound of opera. This famous non-verbal company, directed by Lot Seuntjens, prefers to play in “unusual” locations, such as Canberra.

Artistic installations and shows involving light are to be found everywhere, but notably in Zap Circus’ “Atomic Glow” and the free installation “For Heaven’s Sake”, where three angels from Melbourne indie group Born in a Taxi will inhabit a transparent cube in the Parliamentary Triangle.

The National Gallery invites patrons to “live like Louis XIV with a glass of champagne and then enjoy exclusive, premium access to ‘Versailles: Treasures from the Palace’.”

Equal in hedonism, but with a twist of science, is Questacon’s “Pure ImaGINation: The Science of Gin”, a masterclass in the joys of “mother’s ruin” seen through its contemporary artisan formulations. The public usually beats the doors down for these useful scientific shows.

Even the normally respectable corridors of the Royal Australian Mint will be transformed into an underground disco by DJs Robot Citizen and Black Temple, along with Jazida’s Fabulous Fan Veil Dancers and Obsidian Bellydance.

With “Enlighten”, the later in the day, the better, so Parliament House will allow sophisticated schmoozing in “Sunset on the Roof”, at the specially-created Rooftop Bar, while the Australian National Botanic Gardens creates its unusual “Luminous Botanicus” tours.

Hovering over the whole event is Warren’s liberating theme for 2017 of “freedom, flight and feathers”, perhaps best personified in The Cloudmen who, inspired by the Surrealist artist, Magritte, will give us the Belgian artist’s signature “Businessman, Umbrella and Apple” – up in the clouds.

“Enlighten 2017″, national buildings and the Parliamentary Triangle, March 3-13. Program details at enlightencanberra.com.au