At a gathering moments before the fires were lit in Broad Street for the Luminox art installation, Oxford artist Ted Dewan said we would be amazed by what was to unfold. He warned us to enjoy it. "They'll never let us do it again," he said.

Just how did Mr Dewan and the French art group Carabosse get away with it in the first place? All who visited Broad Street on Thursday, Friday or Saturday evening last week were amazed by the scale and audacity of what they saw.

The rule book went out of the window. What about health and safety? Thousands wandered freely as flames burned all around them.

The whole thing was quite liberating. Liberating for Broad Street and liberating for all of us who live in a society dominated by so many rules.

The question should not be whether we can do something like Luminox again, but when?