Tampere Festival of Light is back – opening ceremony on 27 October

The 58th Tampere Festival of Light kicks off on Friday 27 October with a Eurovision-themed opening ceremony in Koskipuisto. Festival illuminates the city centre with magical lights spheres, street projections and exciting light art. In addition, the Urban Utopia exhibition, produced by the Tampere Art Museum, will delight the city centre until 10 March 2024.

Illuminations around Tampere

The Tampere Festival of Light will feature new, spectacular illuminations and some familiar ones from previous years.

As usual, the lights illuminate the atmosphere of Kauppakatu, Kuninkaankatu and Aleksis Kiven katu with magical decorations. Hämeenkatu will be decorated with colourful light curtains. Tammelantori market place will be illuminated with light figures. The Hatanpää highway will be decorated with colourful light poles, while in Hervanta, the poles in the Lindforsinkatu section will be decorated with light patterns.

Later in December, new lighting will be seen at the entrance to the Tampere Market Hall on Hämeenkatu and around Museum Milavida. The facades of the Central Square will be decorated with Christmas projections from 6 December 2023 to 7 January 2024. The Light Gallery, familiar from previous years, will also return to delight passers-by with its projected works.

Check out all the illuminations on the Tampere Festival of Light website and share your atmosphere in social media using the hashtag #Valoviikot.

Opening ceremony on Friday 27 October

The opening ceremony of the Festival of Light will take place on Friday 27 October from 7 to 7.30 pm in Koskipuisto with Eurovision theme.

The event will feature the winner of the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest Emmelie de Forest and Anneli Saaristo, who represented Finland in the 1989 Eurovision Song Contest and enchanted the audience with her song “La Dolce Vita”. The event will be hosted by radio journalist Pauliina Puurila, among others. The Mayor of Tampere, Kalervo Kummola, will give the opening speech. Yle Tampere will broadcast the opening ceremony live on Yle Areena.

The Dancing Fountains show will close the opening ceremony this year with a Eurovision theme. The Dancing Fountains performances will delight the citizens from 27 October to 5 November 2023. Performances will run for ten days at 7 pm, 8 pm and 9 pm.

The Eurovision theme is related to the Contest for New Music UMK of the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle which will take place in Tampere in February 2024.

Many people are expected to attend the event, so we recommend that you come on foot or by public transport.  The construction work at the Rongankatu, Satakunnankatu and Lapintie affects vehicle, pedestrian and bicycle traffic in the area, and some parking spaces on the streets of the area are decommissioned, so please be aware of this when you arrive at the event.

The Light Gallery’s Urban Utopia

Visual artist Tuomo Rosenlund and author Mika Hannula collaborate in the joint exhibition Urban Utopia merging visual and verbal storytelling. The Light Gallery is part of the Tampere Festival of Light programme and is produced by the Tampere Art Museum.

The Light Gallery artworks will be projected onto the walls of buildings in Tampere city centre starting from 27 October. The artworks will be on display daily during the dark hours from 27 October 2023 to 10 March 2024, approximately from 5 pm to 11 pm.

Tampere Art Museum is organizing free guided tours in the Light Gallery. The guide for these tours is visual artist Tuomo Rosenlund. The tours will be held on three Thursdays: 23 November, 30 November and 4 January. Departure is always at 6 pm from the address Hallituskatu 9, at the corner of Hallituskatu and Kuninkaankatu. The tour will conclude around 7 pm at Puutarhakatu 11.