Copenhagen Light Festival has now placed and turned on more than 50 lightworks for 3 weeks in the dark around  the cities districts, making it the light festival with the most bigger light-artworks in Europe.

A 3,560 meters/2.2 miles green laser called The Green Beam symbolize and connects all the areas in the Danish capital. At the old bridge Knippelsbro in the center of the city are several rays of lights pointed up in the winter sky to be seen by all. The work is callen BRON (The Bridge) and is made by the Baal&Brand (Bonfire&Fire).

In a church yard in the west stands In-Between, which shows an infinite space.
10 minutes away in the city you find an 80 meter walk through luminous triangles that are in constant movement and the music reacts to the number of people walking through.

One of the city’s largest concert halls, DR Concerthall has had its roof transformed into a meteor that just landed. The building, designed by architect Jena Noveau from France, is usually covered by a blue carpet, but now you can see through the cover for the first time.

In the area of a disused shipyard, which today is inhabited by innovative companies, thousands of fungi stands. They seem to communicate in Mycelium networking by Stevie Thompson from the UK and they change color during the conversations.

Each LED ring represents a celestial circle on the earth, such as the equator in Celestial Rhythms, that is reminding visitors of humanity’s place in the vast universe. It is made of a group of engineers, lighting designers and programmers united in “Those Guys” from Latvia, that  is passionate for lighting design.

In a living area in a newly built modern district Ørestaden is the mysterious presence of bars of light set up reflecting the individualism in our societies. Tetra from France made the almost hypnotic drawing to the lights, and in the hope to make people consider how we care for each other and our Earth.

In the churchyard was also Lotus by another French lightdesigner Nicolas Paolozzi set up. A Lotus closes in the night and opens in the day, miraculously re-blooming.

A visitor, Peter Bandsholm, It developer, 30, reflects and says “I think it gives me the opportunity to look at art in the public space, with the Copenhagen scenery being changed by the light. It’s a good way to see the city in another way.”

The festival have made routes on 4 km and more, where you in 1-2 hours walking can see many lightworks. Routes for bikes, public buses, and harbor boats are also made, where you pass the light art works.
Along a path following an old railway are set up Darkness Italian Lennowski.

Another Italian designer group Andrea Lace & Giulio Maffei made a luminous bench, that is a complex installation of video and LED tubes, that casts a mesmerising spell.

The stories behind the light works are told on guided tours with headphones with lights. The guided tours are quickly sold out and show a great interest for light art from all groups in the society.

Lightartist Ole Samsøe from Denmark is pleased with the great interest for light art in public spaces: “Yeah, I first of all, it’s it’s a great idea. It’s a really good idea for Copenhagen. You see Copenhagen in a new perspective. Suddenly you have all this light everywhere. You see all these iconic buildings in an

Ole Samsøe work with a documentary illustrator Jakob Fällings at the Danish War Museum to show Jakob Fällings drawings about love stories during the war in Ukraine. Jakob Fâlling, Painter and Light Artist. DK explains:
“The work is called Love and War because it’s about the love life of Ukrainians. I chose this focus because I wanted to focus on something different than the news stories. I wanted to focus on the lives of ordinary people. I have learned from this war piece that it’s really tough and hard to live through a war, but you have to keep hope. You have to keep loving or otherwise. It’s not worth fighting for your life.”

Another serious problem in the world is pollution in the waters from clothing production.
Petra Poli’s work shows a river in India, where the color of the water is the color of the fashion in the Western world.

Petra Polli. Light Artist, Italy explains
“Textile industry consumes large quantities of water and is polluting the environment and rivers. My artwork, the right to choose, consists of several fabrics that I hang up to dry. A video showing a river in the new trend color can be seen on them. Fast fashion has dominated our shopping behaviors for years and the question is what contribution is each of us ready to make?”

The aim of the festival is to  transform the quiet and cold winter darkness into a unique celebration of light art and focus on important issues that are made by both established and upcoming light artists and organizations.

Visiting Birgitte Malene Koch, Project Manager, thinks it is good, that the art of lighting draws attention to major problems:
“Any way we can raise awareness is a good way, and the beauty of this work will attract people and will also make them think. So I think anything that can make people think is a good thing,”  says Birgitte Malene Koch on 66.

Copenhagen Light Festival starts on the day, when half the winter is gone and you look for light. The period is called  Kyndelmisse, Missa Candelarum Licht Messe in German or kindle a light in English.

It is the coldest time of year and the sun is up 8-9 hours per day. Témparature is around 0C./32 F, but wind and sleet can make it feel colder, when you are outside,  seeing the art in the dark

Copenhagen Light Festival will during the 3 weeks outside until 22 in the evening offer several events, among them a lightrun, artist talks, professional choir performances and a light treasure hunt, where you win a warm drink or hotelstay.

Last year 300,000 people visited the festival and more than 6,2 shared photos and mentioned Copenhagen Light Festival” on social medie.  

The festival comes every year throughout February and ends this year on the 25th.