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Inspiring speakers shared their crossed visions on the future of light festivals during LLFF 2022

Organised by LUCI and the City of Lyon, the 2022 edition of the Lyon Light Festival Forum offered lighting professionals a unique opportunity for international dialogue on creative lighting. From December 8 to 9 at Les Subsistances, inspiring speakers shared their crossed visions on the event’s main focus: the future of light festivals.

The two-day event attracted around 150 participants from 20 countries with 30 cities and light festivals officially represented. This diverse audience of city representatives, light festival organisers, artists and students added to the event’s vibrant exchange on the possibilities and challenges of light festivals. 

Strategic foresight in the face of uncertainty: using future thinking to design better lighting policies

Climate change, energy crisis, erosion of biodiversity, all these crucial issues are now engaging the responsibility of cities and questioning the future of urban lighting policies.  In this period of multiple crises, Mathieu Baudin, Director of the “Institut des Futurs Souhaitables”, opened the Forum discussions with an inspiring keynote speech. He invited participants to seize the opportunity offered by the crisis to collectively invent a better world. “We must prepare the future rather than predicting it,” he reminded the audience while providing guidelines to overcome uncertainties and expand our perceptions of what is possible in the future.

The Future of Light Festivals: towards new models of collaboration

Discussion on the future of light festivals began with a roundtable with Julien Pavillard, Director of the Fête des Lumières at City of Lyon, Tom Weerts, Production Manager at GLOW Eindhoven, Elisa Hillgen, Lighting Coordinator at City of Jyväskylä, and the artist Craig Morrison. Each speaker shared their perspective on the modern challenges of light festivals while showcasing how their 3 cities’ co-created light art installation “Beacon of Hope” may be part of the answer to solve these issues.

Recalling the key role of festive illumination in fostering public engagement in public space, the speakers discussed the values and roles of light festivals in an evolving context. However, light festivals must continue to adapt and reinvent themselves. Eco-consciousness, local connection, harmony between light and darkness appeared to be key elements to envision the future of light festivals. The speakers agreed that sharing experiences and inventing new models of collaboration between professionals in the creative lighting sector will help to meet these challenges. Indeed, light festivals have the capacity to generate social inclusion and community participation and the “Beacon” project has showcased its ability to do both.

The project has gained media attention during the event on Euronews – read and watch the reportage here.

Peer-to-peer sharing and learning in the field of creative lighting

The future of light festivals remained the main topic of the dynamic Pecha Kucha sessions. In these quick presentations, participants learned from speakers coming from France, Spain, Tunisia, Germany and the Netherlands about their creative projects and perspective on the future of light events.

The audience learned from renowned light festivals organisers, artists and designers Maria Güell, Director at Llum BCN, Léa Conrath, Coordinator at HACNUM, Bettina Pelz and Aymen Gharbi, co-founders of INTERFERENCE Tunis, and Julien Taïb, Producer at Crossed Lab, about their work and projects towards innovative light installations and creative placemaking. Sustainability and eco-consciousness were at the forefront of presentations by Jaap Schuuring, Head of Customer Learning, Signify and Sophie Hombert, CEO at Design Aglaé.

See the Pecha Kucha speakers and topics here.

Celebrating the international lighting community with light

After many discussions and ideas shared throughout the event, participants were invited to join a special (Light)Speed Networking session where they could meet other lighting professions and share their own dreams and hopes for the future of light festivals. In addition, they could exchange their perspectives on the ongoing Fête des Lumières event. Group visits to the festival took place on both evenings.

The event was also the final occasion to raise a glass and sing to the association’s 20 year anniversary during the closing cocktail reception.

The Forum closed with a visit to the “Beacon of Hope” installation at Institute Lumière where not only could the audience admire the collaborative project in-person, but also participate in a communal ribbon dance.

©LUCI Association

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