Travel
Glow Beyond: 12 Dazzling Light Festivals To Visit
As the dark months close in on the Northern Hemisphere, we illuminate the most beautiful – and mostly free – light festivals all over the world, from Amsterdam to Japan
Humans have always sought to bring light into darkness, with cultures around the world traditionally celebrating festivals of light – both literally and figuratively – during the darkest times of the year. As the days grow shorter in the Northern Hemisphere, we explore a host of events set to illuminate top cities across the globe with everything from bonfires and firework displays to dazzling artistic installations.
Amsterdam Light Festival puts the city’s many canals to excellent use, employing them as mirrors to multiply the effect of lights strung up alongside them, sculptures suspended above them, and illuminated buildings gleaming by the water. The best way to see it all? From the comfort of one of the canal boats cruising along the festival route, of course!
[Photos © Amsterdam Light Festival]
Helsinki is one of the darkest capital cities on earth during the winter months, so it’s no surprise that locals embrace a chance to enjoy the light shows of LUX Helsinki. The festival is usually held in early to mid-January, during what many consider to be the most depressing time of the year, with a range of creative light installations brightening courtyards and façades along a walkable route through the city centre.
[LUX Helsinki. Photos © Petri Anttila]
Strange as it may seem in this day and age to celebrate the failed attempt of a domestic terrorist to blow up the Houses of Parliament, that’s exactly what Guy Fawkes Night is all about. The event is marked by bonfires across the UK, but – not content with a fire alone – the annual Carnival in Bridgwater also features parades with elaborately themed carts, decorated and illuminated with bright lighting. The tradition has evolved since the first recorded event in 1847, with other similar processions taking place across the English West Country today.
[Photos courtesy of Bridgewater Carnival]
Lyon gives the French capital a run for its money when it becomes a City of Light each December during the annual Fête des Lumières. The vibrant, modern festival dates back to a centuries-old tradition of locals placing a candle in their window to commemorate the end of a medieval plague epidemic. In dozens of locations across the city, buildings both classical and contemporary are imaginatively illuminated by leading light artists. Highlights of the most recent edition included an immersive light-and-sound show projected across the magnificent basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, as well as a dedicated children’s Boum de lumières (Party of Lights) with dancing, karaoke, craft-making and more.
[Fête des Lumières. Photo at left © Brice Robert. Photo at right © Muriel Chaulet]
Now coming into its eleventh year, Geneva Lux hopes to continue coaxing residents and visitors out of their abodes and into the long, dark nights from late January into early February. The promise? Twenty-four luminous artworks – many of them brand new for 2026 – that lend a sense of mystery and mysticism to the lakeside Jardin Anglais. On weekend evenings, the festival ups the ante with captivating performances among the lights, such as an acrobatic “ballet” performed via flyboard over the lake.
[Photos courtesy of Geneva Lux]
Berlin can feel like a grey vortex of vitality in winter. There isn’t much to be done about the grim weather, the drab cityscape and the general population’s inclination towards colourless outerwear. However, the German capital’s vibrant nightlife, lively culture scene and plethora of festivals help light up the darker months. One such event, the superb Festival of Lights, transforms some of the city’s most popular landmarks – like the Brandenburg Gate – into brilliant works of art, while also bringing light installations into residential areas far from the beaten tourist track.
[Photos © Festival of Lights]
The Portland Winter Light Festival in Portland, Oregon (which, naturally, has a vowel-free hipster acronym: PDXWLF) celebrated its 10th anniversary in February 2025, attracting nearly 300,000 visitors to key locations across the city, all lit up with large-scale light artworks, animated with live music and sweetened with the scent of warm treats wafting from nearby food carts. Those willing to brave the winter conditions for the upcoming iteration will be treated to even more submissions by local and international artists under the 2026 festival theme “All the Little Things”.
[Portland Winter Light Festival. Photo at left © AmySakurai. Photo at right © Dylan Evanston]
Sydney’s New Year’s Eve fireworks are perhaps the Southern Hemisphere’s most popular light event. If you can’t be there to ring in the New Year, visit in the middle of the Australian winter, when the city puts on an equally impressive show. In fact, compared to a few hours of entertainment that can only be seen from certain vantage points around the harbour, Vivid Sydney offers hundreds of light spectacles, in dozens of locations, spread over several weeks. This year’s edition saw five festival zones come to life with musical performances, roller-disco dining and epic light creations, including a moving audiovisual display in tribute to the late artist David McDiarmid, projected across the sails of the Sydney Opera House.
[Vivid Sydney. Photos © Destination NSW]
Likewise held in May and June, i Light on Singapore’s Marina Bay is billed as Asia’s leading sustainable light art festival. The waterfront precinct is illuminated with installations created by local and international artists for three weeks each year. Not only does the festival feature art made from sustainable and recycled materials and low-energy light sources like LED, but the festival also promotes sustainability across the city – from a past “Switch Off, Turn Up” campaign that encouraged buildings to reduce non-essential lighting, to installations that raise awareness of environmental issues.
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In Thailand, Loy Krathong and Yee Peng compete for attention each November. Both full moon festivals are centred around thousands of individual lights released into the night, as locals bring floats made from coconut shells, banana leaves or bread – decorated with flowers, candles and incense – to the river, and watch them float downstream. Elsewhere, paper lanterns are released into the sky. Similar celebrations abound across Thailand and neighbouring countries, and are often counted among the most visually spectacular festivals in the world.
[Loy Krathong and Yee Peng. Photos © Getty Images]
Nabana no Sato Winter Illumination Festival is only one of many fantastic winter light festivals in Japan. Held in a garden theme park within Nagashima Island Resort, it makes a virtue out of the seasonal lack of flowers, replacing colourful blooms with multi-hued light sculptures and a light tunnel known to provide the perfect glow for flattering selfies. The displays are so spectacular that the flower park has actually become more popular in winter, despite its lack of flowers.
[Nabana no Sato Winter Illumination Festival. Photos © Getty Images]
Elsewhere in Japan, Kobe Luminarie was founded to commemorate the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995. It was first held within the same year the earthquake took thousands of lives, when the memory of power cuts and enforced darkness were still fresh on local people’s minds. Today, the festival movingly pays tributes to the lives lost and the remarkable spirit of survival that enabled the community to create a beautiful tradition out of a terrible tragedy.
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[Photo at top courtesy of the Festival of Lights in Berlin]
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