The first weekend of December, Lyon will dress up in its most beautiful clothes. As it has done for 25 years, the capital of Gaul is organizing the traditional Festival of Lights. From Thursday December 5 to Sunday December 8, the city will welcome around two million people who will discover or rediscover luminous works in different neighborhoods.
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Launched in 1999 over four days of festivities, the Festival of Lights returns for its 25th anniversary with new installations and six “anniversary” works. Two new districts, Croix Rousse and the garden city, will take part in the event. 32 works of art will be installed across the city. Last year, nearly two million people gathered for these four luminous evenings.
The public will find the famous “snow globe” du Lyonnais, Jacques Riva, Place Bellecour. On the program in 2006, it had been damaged by bad weather. Returning the following year, she won the trophy. This anniversary year, it will therefore be visible again.
The Anookis, these little characters are returning to Lyon and will come alive in the Tête d’Or park. They have, on several occasions, won over the public. For Moetu Batlle and David Passegand, their two creators,“Anooki are funny and impertinent. They transmit the values of friendship and living together. They communicate their good humor, touch adults and fascinate children”.
They are true messengers of the environment. The Anooki are well placed to observe the fragility of our planet and climate change. Their sea ice has melted, they are the first affected by the upheavals in our climate.
Moetu Batlle and David Passegand – Inook
The little characters, now grown up, will go frolicking in the Parc de la Tête d’Or.
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© Moetu Batlle and David Passegand, Inook bureau
Place des Terreaux will find the little giant, a colorful dream on the facades of the town hall and the Museum of Fine Arts. In 2008, this little giant created by the workshop “Spectaculaires, les Allumeurs d’Images”, had “bewitched the audience” according to the organizers.
Wandering through the city center, visitors will once again pass under Massimo Faniuolo’s “Paséo d’hiver”, a light installation that runs along the city’s shopping street.
Place Antonin Poncet, the garden of luminous flowers, “Lianikea”will light up again. A “hypnotic ballet of clouds, clusters of luminous points, stars, which form constellations, then disintegrate”depending on the elements of the program.
At the heart of the peninsula, the Place des Jacobins, for the fourth time, will receive Patrice Warrener with his key word “color, nothing but color”.
I play light like music: with the most beautiful notes possible!
Patrice Warrener, “Jacobins Act 4”
The program for the Festival of Lights was presented at a press conference this Tuesday, November 5. The Lights of the Heart, a humanitarian event, will raise funds for the Samu social, in favor of the homeless.
This year again, Parc Blandan will give pride of place to children and families. Games and activities will take place at the start of the evening, “in a creative and participatory fair spirit”depending on the city.
The Festival of Lights dates back to 1643. On September 8, that year, the people of Lyon went in procession to the hill of Fourvière to ask the Virgin Mary to protect the city from the plague. They vow to repeat this pilgrimage if Lyon is spared. Since then, every September 8, this wish has been honored.
In 1850, “the religious authorities are launching a competition for the creation of a statue, envisaged as a religious signal at the top of Fourvière hill”we can read on the Festival of Lights website.
The inauguration initially planned for September 8, 1852 was postponed to December 8 due to a flood of the Saône. When the day comes, bad weather will once again thwart the celebrations: the religious authorities are on the verge of canceling the inauguration.
Website of the Festival of Lights, Lyon
As the sky clears, the people of Lyon will spontaneously put candles on their windows. The Fourvière chapel will light up. That evening, a party was born. Every year, on the same date, lights are lit all over town. In 1989, buildings began to be permanently illuminated. In 1999, the festival took place over four evenings and became an international event.
