Traditional arts meets modern tech at Lyon Festival of Lights
2018-12-17
Surging crowds, deafening cheers and, most importantly, fantastic light shows, the night of Lyon is one of the best recommendations when you encounter the romantic France.
Integrating traditional art with state-of-the-art technologies, the Lyon Festival of Lights, or Lyon's Fête des Lumières in France, is a major event in Lyon and one of the largest visual arts festival across the globe.
It usually takes place around Dec 8 for four consecutive nights. When 8 pm rolls around, all you have to do is to immerse yourself in this major celebration that is free and open to all.
Meanwhile, the origin of the festival is a wonderful story to tell. In 1850, the religious veterans of Lyon decided to build a statue of the Virgin Mary at the top of Fourviere district and launched a competition to choose a sculptor.
The statue was eventually completed by the sculptor Joseph-Hugues Fabisch. The inauguration ceremony was originally scheduled to take place on Sept 8, 1852, when Roman Catholics honor the Virgin Mary on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Unfortunately, the event had to be postponed until Dec 8 due to sudden flooding on the Saone River.
Three months later, a torrential rain in Lyon seemed about to force the event to be postponed again. As dusk approached, the sky cleared, and Lyon citizens all lit candles in their windows to celebrate the day. Since then, this day has been designated as the day of light shows, and evolved into a world-famous festival.
More than 80 light-based artistic creations are displayed in every corner of the city, presenting a beautiful and exciting world through different forms.
In addition, the styles of presenting the artistic works have increased to seven types compared to previous years, including ensemble creations, object deviation, innovation, interaction, lighting effect, object illumining and video projection.
The 2018 festival attracted more than 1.8 million visitors from all over the world to enjoy the visual feast by amazing artists. The festival, which combines tradition and new ideas, has ignited the creative enthusiasm of countless artists and brought a stunning visual experience to viewers both at home and abroad.