Amsterdam Light Festival in full swing for 11th edition

For the next 53 days, the capital will again be lit up by works of art during the Amsterdam Light Festival. The eleventh edition of the event is ready for a large audience after the years related to the coronavirus pandemic. Starting on Thursday, visitors could view all twenty light-based artworks by boat or on foot.

Festival director Frédérique ter Brugge said she was happy that the festival is back to normal. Last year, the event ran into financial problems when all activities - such as the cruises - had to be canceled shortly after the start of the event due to lockdown measures. A crowdfunding campaign was then set up and the festival eventually closed without a financial shortfall. Ter Brugge said she hopes that visitors will return in large numbers. Before the coronavirus crisis, about 750,000 people visited the event.

Twelve Dutch artists and eight from other countries including France, Taiwan and the United States, have been selected for the festival this year. They made their work especially for the event. This time, the Amsterdam Light Festival is about the world of the imagination, with the theme Imagine Beyond. According to Ter Brugge, visitors will enter "another world" through an "immense gate."

It was previously announced that light art festival Glow in Eindhoven would turn off the lights an hour earlier due to high energy costs. This measure is not being taken by the Amsterdam Light Festival. According to the director, energy consumption is not too high in large part do to LED lighting and a focus on efficiency. "The energy consumption is equivalent to that of six households on an annual basis. That is relatively low," she said. The impact of turning off the lights earlier was not particularly high, she added.

Ter Brugge emphasized that the organization has done quite a bit to be as sustainable as possible. "That is absolutely our focus in the development of the art. For example, there is a lot of attention for the reuse of materials and the works of art are not broken down afterwards, but end up in our collection. They then travel all over the world."

The festival has a special focus on young people. For example, there is an education project in which 1,200 Amsterdam primary school students participate. In addition to art, they also learn about bridges and quays, many of which are in poor condition. There are also special boat trips in January for three hundred elderly people who are no longer mobile enough to come on their own. The organization wants to expand this number considerably in the coming years.