In the festival’s early years there were some 40 works of art - generally large installations. In our opinion the illuminated bridges, the monuments lit up by spotlights, and the gezellige interiors of countless different houses along the way provide a much better light show than anything we have seen at the Amsterdam Light Festival. Now, if you appreciate modern art installations, particularly when they involve light, your mileage may well differ.īut us Amsterdammers much prefer to take one of the regular canal cruises at night.Īmsterdam is a city of lights. There were some notable exceptions, but they were far and few between. Perhaps as a result most of the art installations left us puzzled, bemused, or both. Mind you, none of us are really into contemporary art. The same is true for the seventh edition, in the winter of 2018-2019. We did see some of the art installations on our way to and from other destinations. When the sixth edition came around (2017-2018) we finally decided that it wasn’t worth our time and money. We visited the second one - and subsequent editions - in order to review the festival for this website. Amsterdam Light Festival: Reviews, and our OpinionĪs Amsterdam locals, the Amsterdam Light Festival leaves us underwhelmed.īy now we have seen the complete route during 5 of the 6 editions. The light art projects are connected by a 5km (3,1 miles) walking route. A large exhibition in the public space of the city with around 35 light artists from home and abroad. But that is true for Glow and that is quite an achievement.” Video: Glow Eindhoven 2018 AftermovieĮvery year in November the international light art festival GLOW takes place in Eindhoven. ![]() “The majority of visitors are people who happen to live there or stay as tourists, because the Amsterdam Light Festival is not yet at the level that many people come to the city specifically to see it. ![]() (By the way, in first place is Amsterdam’s quinquennial maritime festival SAIL, which will next take place in August 2020.)Īsked about the Amsterdam Light Festival’s self-reported ‘5 million visitors’, Beerde says that number is a bit sketchy. The Amsterdam Light Festival does not rank in the top ten. Last year it listed Glow among the top ten best-rated city events. In terms of visitor numbers, GLOW ranks among the top five light festivals in the world.įirst held in November 2006, the free-for-all GLOW festival will see its 15th anniversary next year.īrand researcher Hendrik Beerda from Amsterdam conducts annual research into the public awareness of city events in the Netherlands. The 2019 edition of this light festival drew 770.000 visitors - in just eight days (November 7 through 14). GLOW Festival EindhovenĬompare those visitor numbers with the totals for this year’s edition of GLOW Festival Eindhoven. If true, that would be a mere 25.000 more visitors than reported for the first year. Reportedly, this year the organization expects some 400.000 visitors. But if we subtract the 4.315.000 figure from the Wikipedia listing from the reported 5 million visitors in total we arrive at 685.000 for year seven. We haven’t found any attendance figures for the 2018 – 2019 edition. The Wikipedia entry for the Amsterdam Light Festival lists statistics for the first six editions: Official visitor numbers are hard to come by. To wit, the organization has realised 240 artworks, 7 exhibitions and 5 million visitors since 2012. Now in its eight year, the Amsterdam Light Festival Foundation claims to be “one of the largest light art festivals in Europe.” ‘One of Europe’s largest light art festivals’ Note: The following section covers earlier editions, and includes archived information. Handy starting points are the information stands at Prins Hendrikkade or Blauwbrug. The walking route can be started at every artwork.The walking route (or biking route) is approximately 6.5 kilometers (about 4 miles) and can be done at any given moment that the lights are on.See your Amsterdam Light Festival cruise tickets for details. There are different departure locations for different cruises.The first cruises depart at 4.30PM and the last one sets sail at 9.30PM. Canal cruises take about 75 minutes and they depart every half hour.Exception: on New Year’s Eve the lights are off at 8.00PM. The lights are on every evening from 5.00 to 11.00PM.This year the light artworks will take you to new worlds.” In these challenging times, we desperately need that power of imagination to envision change and a brighter future – and to occasionally escape reality. The organization explains, “With imagination you can transcend the here and now. This year’s theme is: Imagine Beyond - a Journey to the World of Imagination. The Winter 2022-2023 edition of the Amsterdam Light Festival takes place from Decemthrough January 22, 2023.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |