By the numbers: Light festivals around the world

With Vivid Sydney set to return on 24 May, here are some fun facts on other must-visit light festivals and when they began

Lights shine out from cathedral on Fourvière Hill

1. 1852

The year Fête des Lumières in cobblestoned Lyon, France first starts to commemorate the installation of the Virgin Mary statue on Fourvière Hill.

2. 2004

Nabana no Sato park in Japan’s Kansai region kicks off an annual festival. Every October, it becomes an iridescent garden lit by thousands of flower-shaped lights.

3. 2005

Now celebrating its 15th year, the Berlin Festival of Lights promises to turn the city into an open-air gallery, with 100,000m2 of art scattered across a hundred sites.

4. 2011

With a penchant for nabbing Guinness World Records – it currently holds four for light and flame projections – Moscow’s Circle of Light festival pulls out all the stops for its inaugural edition.

This article was originally published in the May 2019 issue of SiverKris magazine