Amsterdam Light Festival 2023-2024 | 12th Edition | Dates, Opening Hours, and Free Walking Route Map
Disclaimer: The images in this article are a collection of the best light artworks from all editions of the Amsterdam Light Festival so far, and are not restricted to the 12th edition alone.
What is Amsterdam Light Festival?
The annual Amsterdam Light Festival (ALF) fills the Dutch capital's canals with magnificent works of light art every winter. Designers, architects, and artists from all around the world submit hundreds of concepts each year, out of which 20 to 30 artworks are chosen for display in the festival by a selection committee.
The theme of this year’s 12th Edition of the Amsterdam Light Festival is ‘Loading…,’ wherein 20 light artworks created by various foreign artists set against the backdrops of Amsterdam will showcase how technology and artificial intelligence (AI) affect our daily lives and society at large, in terms of how we interact, communicate, and create. Additionally, the artworks will focus on topics like how the mobile has taken center stage in our lives and how motion capture, facial recognition, self-learning algorithms, and swarm intelligence are going to rule our lives in the years to come. The question is what comes next and where are the limits? That continues to load!
Who organizes Amsterdam Light Festival?
Amsterdam Light Festival is a private non-profit foundation that has a cultural ANBI ('Algemeen Nut Beogende Instelling') status which means Public Benefit Institution in English. The vision of the organization is to bring people face to face with the contemporary challenges of the world via art. Therefore, every year the Amsterdam Light Festival is conducted by this private foundation in collaboration with the municipality, the cultural sector, and numerous partnering companies. In 2021, the annual budget of the event was €2.5 million. To know more about the organization behind the Amsterdam Light Festival or to support them, please visit their website amsterdamlightfestival.com/en/organization.
How did the Amsterdam Light Festival start?
From the 1920s onwards, light art began to find a foothold in the public realms of major European cities, including Amsterdam. The Edison Light Week, the first so-called ‘light event’ in the Netherlands, took place in October 1929, when various buildings were festooned with light bulbs, a water parade was held with illuminated boats making their way through the canals, and a lit-up Fokker airplane was flown above the city, attracting enormous crowds of inquisitive onlookers.
Talking about the Amsterdam Light Festival, the ‘Christmas Canal Parade’ of 2009 is known to have given birth to it. The organizers went on to host the ‘Winter Magic Amsterdam’ the following year, 2010, which included a variety of activities in addition to the boat parade. Rogier van der Heide, an internationally famous light designer, illuminated the historic Skinny Bridge for three weeks that year, proposing that the festival focus on light art going forward. As a result, a new focus emerged: the Amsterdam Light Festival.
A public light festival was still new at the time, but it soon gained popularity, thanks in part to the event's ability to take advantage of the new possibilities given by LED lighting. The Amsterdam Light Festival is distinguished from other light festivals such as GLOW in Eindhoven and Polderlicht in East Amsterdam by the topicality and accessibility of its light items.
Dates and Opening Hours
Dates: From November 30, 2023, to January 21, 2024
Hours: The light artworks will be switched on between 17:00 and 22:00 from Sunday to Tuesday, and between 17:00 and 23:00 from Wednesday to Saturday. On December 31 the lights will be switched off. In my opinion, the best time to start the walk is around 17:30 when the sunlight starts getting dimmer and the light installations spring to life.
Walking Route
Having done the Light Festival many times on my own, I have created my own free walking route map, which is the ‘only’ free Walking Route Map available on the internet as of today!
Note: If you want to get the official route map with the audio guide, or go for a group/private tour with a guide, you can purchase them from the Amsterdam Light Festival’s ticket shop amsterdamlightfestival.com/en/tickets-walking.
My Free Walking Route Map
Every year, the light installations are set up around the canals of Amsterdam in the Weesperbuurt and Plantage area. The Walking Route across the area is roughly 7.5 km. If you are traveling by public transport, I recommend you to start from the Amsterdam Centraal railway station. And if you arrive by car, I recommend you to park at the Parking Garage Oosterdok near Nemo Science Museum. After that walk to Nemo Science Museum over Mr. J.J. van der Veldebrug bridge and follow the walking route by putting the following landmarks in Google Maps. Please note that the places mentioned below are landmarks in the Plantage area of Amsterdam and not the exact locations of the art installations, but you will see them on the way along this walking route.
Oosterdokseiland, 1011 AE Amsterdam
NEMO Science Museum, Oosterdok 2, 1011 VX Amsterdam
Frenzi, Zwanenburgwal 232, 1011 JH Amsterdam
Gemeente Amsterdam, Stadsloket Centre, Amstel 1, 1011 PN Amsterdam
Skinny Bridge, Magere Brug, 1018 EG Amsterdam
Zalencentrum van Limmikhof, Nieuwe Keizersgracht, Amsterdam
Bagels & Beans, Roetersstraat 2A, 1018 WC Amsterdam
Former Oranje Nassau barracks, Oranje-Nassau Kazerne, 1018 AV Amsterdam
Armand Sunierbrug (Brug 327), Entrepotdok, Amsterdam
Nijlpaardbrug (Hippopotamus Bridge), Plantage Kerklaan 199, 1018 CX Amsterdam
NEMO Science Museum, Oosterdok 2, 1011 VX Amsterdam
Oosterdokseiland, 1011 AE Amsterdam (walking over Mr. J.J. van der Veldebrug bridge)
Information Booths En Route
If you need help while you are en route, there are the following festival informational booths along the route -
Stoperaplein (open from Thursday to Sunday plus the entire Christmas Break i.e. from 23 December to 7 January, between 16:00 and 21:00)
Hoftuin (open from 14 December to 7 January, between 16:00 and 21:00 barring 18, 19, and 20 December)
Canal Cruise
Apart from walking, if you wish to take a canal cruise across the canals with the art installations, you can purchase the tickets from their website amsterdamlightfestival.com/en/tickets. The cruises leave every half hour, and they last for around 75 minutes. The first cruise leaves roughly around 17:00 and the last one departs at 21:30.
Epilogue
So that was all about the Amsterdam Light Festival. Please let us know in the comments below if you enjoyed reading this article. And until we meet next time, I wish you merry traveling and happy shooting!
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