In the winter months, light festivals pop up to brighten the dark nights in the Netherlands. In Amsterdam, the Amsterdam Light Festival takes place every December, now in its 14th edition. Every November, Glow Eindhoven brightens up the city which is home to the Philips lightbulb. And Utrecht has a small display of artworks called I Light U in the early months of the year.

Light festivals and artworks can sometimes feel a little hit-and-miss. Nice to look at sometimes, but ‘underwhelming’ is a word I see often when reading Amsterdam Light Festival reviews. So, keeping it positive, here are a few favourite artworks and installations from both festivals over the years

This is one of the most popular artworks from Amsterdam Light Festival, and it's easy to see why. It celebrates the city's tolerance and liberal history, home of the world's first same-sex marriage. And it does this in a lovely site-specific way connected to the city's iconic bridges.

This is another artwork using Amsterdam’s canals and bridges. By husband-and-wife team Paul Vendel and Sandra de Wolf, it is a tunnel of 520 LED tubes, arranged to guide passing boats in and under the bridge. Vendel and de Wolf have taken part in nearly every Amsterdam Light Festival, last year creating an installation that appeared to be shooting stars.

Taking inspiration from vast Renaissance cathedrals, this monumental artwork enclosed a shopping street in Eindhoven in 2025. It was created by an Italian family company, Luminarie de Cagna, master craftspeople inspired by festive Apulian lighting traditions.

The GLOW festival website gives the instruction: Walk around, look up and to the side, and let your jaw drop. Am I dreaming, or is this real? This artwork is a stunning marvel, a sight to see.

Belgrade-based artistic duo Ivana Jelić and Pavle Petrović created this light artwork inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s 1889 artwork Starry Night. Perched over a canal bridge, it shimmers with the same intensity. 1,400 tubes lit by LED lights replace his brushstrokes and bring a south-of-France scene to the centre of Amsterdam.

Hungarian artists Péter Koros and Réka Magyar work together as Koros Design. For the 5th edition of Amsterdam Light Festival in 2016, they created this bunch of tulips. Tulips, of course, are a symbol of the Netherlands, with this design being more inspired by plastic tulips or perhaps the little souvenir wooden tulips. The changing colours remind me of the tulip fields in spring, bringing a sense of hope to winter nights.

And finally, an artwork that has been shared many times in international media. Absorbed by Light, is by Gali May Lucas, a British artist based in Amsterdam, and Berlin-based sculptor Karoline Hinz.

It’s been part of the Amsterdam Light Festival a number of times, perhaps due to its immediacy and because its message is so shareable. Several ghostly-white figures sit on benches, the only light illuminating them comes from the mobile phones they hold - sadly, more engaged with those than the world around them.

A few articles from Europeana this week!

Thank you for reading + until next time,