The anniversary edition of the light art festival GLOW kicked off Saturday evening. Not only in Eindhoven, but also in Veldhoven, Oirschot, Best, Helmond, and Lieshout. A total of 87 diverse projections can be admired at this festive edition. Many light artworks are displayed on buildings. “The atmosphere is great.”
It’s a matter of joining the queue and shuffling from light artwork to light artwork. The organisers expect approximately 750,000 visitors in a week. With such an outdoor festival in November, the weather apps are monitored extra closely. “It’s going to be a fantastic GLOW this year,” predicts director Ronald Ramakers. “The weather is going to be great,” he says enthusiastically.
This is also his last edition. Ramakers looks back on it fondly. He believes the festival is incredibly valuable for the Eindhoven region. “It’s a huge festival that connects people. When you’re together around a campfire, you always feel connected. Now we have that as a whole.”
Together
GLOW also represents connection for another reason, as Mayor Jeroen Dijsselbloem tells Omroep Brabant. “It brings together art, creativity, and technology,” he says, while in the background, his city hall undergoes a rapid transformation. “GLOW is a celebration of fantasy, of imagination, of changing perspectives.”
With light and sound, you can instantly transform a building like this city hall into an aquarium, a coral reef, a jungle, and then into a sea of fire. It’s truly amazing what GLOW can bring to the imagination and perspective. It’s one of the city’s biggest crowd-pullers. Hundreds of thousands of people attend, literally marching through the city in a parade every day.
Impressive
It was already packed on Saturday evening. One of the crowd didn’t miss a single edition. “It’s really beautiful, really impressive, and incredibly fun,” he says, a feeling likely echoed by everyone who wants to join in this year’s celebration. A native Eindhoven resident agrees: “It’s food, drink, and enjoyment, every year.”
The route in Eindhoven is five kilometres long and leads past 34 light artworks. “Gold of Old” is back, as several crowd-pullers from the past twenty years are once again on display, much to the delight of GLOW fans. Like the luminous sunflowers in the Anne Frank Park, a tribute, of course, to the painter Vincent van Gogh. The park transforms into a sea of luminous sunflowers. As you get closer, you’ll see they’re lanterns.
This first evening it’s also busy at Tunnel Rinascimentale, the light artwork on Rechtestraat. You walk through a fairytale-like tunnel of light. The columns have enormous arches adorned with hundreds of thousands of colourful lights. This is light art with a touch of kitsch.
Value
There’s something special about strolling peacefully among the many light artworks and viewing them together, says outgoing director Ramakers. “It connects people on an incredible level. Imagine walking with everyone and feeling: ‘This is mine. I can experience this. I can find it beautiful.’ And people around you share the experience. That gives value to society. I think that’s truly the essence of a festival like GLOW.”
Source: www.studio040.nl
Translated by Yawar Abbas
