Festival concept

The concept of the Festival was developed at the Association of World Light Festivals representatives council. The Festival connection with the history and image of the city is the main feature of the project, which is followed in all countries. Saint-Petersburg was no exception.

In April 2016, the Festival announced itself with a presentational light show on the facade of the Alexandrinsky Theatre, which celebrated its 260th anniversary that year.

With the 3D-mapping technology, the architectural appearance of the oldest St. Petersburg theater facade, as well as other monuments that form the Ostrovsky Square ensemble, were involved in the play of light, music, and optical illusions.

In November 2016, the autumn Festival of Light took place at St. Isaac’s Square. The 3D performances were shown on the facades of the architectural masterpieces – Mariinsky Palace and St. Isaac's Cathedral. The main character of the performances was magnificent Saint-Petersburg – its fate and history, its legends and images, its soul and memory. The festival became the culmination of the National Unity Day celebration and took the historical record for 3D-mapping height: 101.5 meters. The project brought together over 400 thousand people.

In April 2017, a new sports facility in the city – the St. Petersburg Zenit Arena stadium, which would host the 2018 FIFA World Cup games – became the venue for the light show. There’s no wonder that the main theme for the show was football, the history of its development in the world, and a special passion for it in the city on the Neva.

In November 2017, the Festival of Light, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the revolution, was held at several venues in the city simultaneously. The program included several projects: -multimedia performance "1917" on the General Staff building facade;

- competition of video artists of the world "This city keeps me safe...", which took place on the Winter Palace facade;

- "Aurora'17" was performed on the famous eponymous cruiser which gave the signal to start the Revolution.

In November 2018, the festival shed light on the Saint Petersburg Sports and Concert Complex. Within the framework of the festival, the participants held educational hackathons, a drone show took place on the square in front of the Saint Petersburg Sports and Concert Complex, and more than 30 different light installations were mounted on the territory of Victory Park.

In April 2019, the festival was held on Pionerskaya Square. The building of the Bryantsev Youth Theatre became the light installation venue. Actors and acrobats took part in the multimedia live performance. At the spring Festival of light, a method of creating living pictures using virtual reality technology was applied for the first time. Another know-how of the festival was the creation of augmented reality (AR) at a massive open-air event.

In November 2019, the festival came back to Palace Square. For two evenings, the main square of the city turned into a digital garden, and guests and residents of St. Petersburg were immersed in the atmosphere of a computer game.

To be continued…

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