Reykjavík Winter Lights Festival Opens Today

The annual Reykjavík Winter Lights Festival opens today and continues through Sunday, Morgunblaðið reports. Its format this year is different from that of previous years, due to COVID-19-related restrictions. Therefore, there will be no formal opening ceremony or crowded events, such as normally have been held at the city’s museums and swimming pools.

Instead, the winter lights walking path will be the main attraction. The map, which you can view here, shows the location of 23 light installations that will be projected onto buildings and windows, as well as alleys, between the hours of 6 pm and 9 pm every night of the festival. The path extends from Hallgrímskirkja church to Austurvöllur square and all the way to Reykjavík City Hall.

The City of Reykjavík and ON Power, in cooperation with Iceland Design and Architecture, recently held a light installation competition, and the top two works will be featured at the festival.

The winner of the competition was a work by Katerina Blahutova and Þorsteinn Eyfjörð Þórarinsson, which will be on display in the park by the Einar Jónsson Art Museum. The other work is by Litten Nystrøm and Har­aldur Karls­son. It will be projected onto Hallgrímskirkja church.

The Reykjavík Art Walk mobile app is designed to help you locate and enjoy outdoor sculptures in Reykjavík. It not only provides you with a map of the city, showing the location of the sculptures, but provides you, too, with excellent information about the works of art and the artists. For more information, see here. 

For more information about the Winter Lights Festival, see here.