The New York Festival of Light (NYFOL) announces New York City’s first annual New York Festival of Light, a three-night event - Thursday through Saturday, November 6 -8, 2014 - that celebrates light, in all of its extraordinary incarnations. New York now joins the ranks of major cities such as Berlin, London, Lyon, Montreal, and Sydney that have festivals of light. The festival is free and open to the public.
The festival, which is held in partnership with the DUMBO Improvement District, features a curated collection of lighting installations created by local and internationally renowned lighting designers, visual and performing artists, and technologists who work within the medium of light. The spectacle takes place in the Archway under the Manhattan Bridge and in the surrounding plaza space.
Approximately ten interactive, projection, and static lighting installations will take part in NYFOL 2014.
Highlights include:
Sounds of Nature - Tupac Martir, visual artist and production designer, and lighting director for Elton John, Beyoncé, Sting, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, to name a few, has created an installation for the plaza that is composed of umbrellas and LEDs that are triggered by sensors sensitive to the weather and the movement of the people to create different patterns of sound and light.
Laser Light Show – Howard Ungerleider, who does amazing architectural lighting, stage lighting, and set design, presents a high-powered laser light show, complete with smoke, in the Archway.
Initiations - 3_Search, a creative collective, is curating a projection mapped video series that explores the transitory place where endings and beginnings overlap in perpetual evolution, and incorporates works by international projection mappers, including designs from Glowing Bulbs, Integrated Visions, dandelion & burdock, and others on the facade of the Manhattan Bridge Anchorage.
In addition, NYFOL 2014 will feature illuminated ice sculptures, performances by iLuminate, a DJ, food trucks, and hundreds of visitors. Hours are 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM on Thursday and 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM on Friday and Saturday.
NYFOL is the brainchild of Liam O’Braion, a producer of large-scale entertainment events, and Ira Levy, an award-winning New York City-based lighting designer. On October 24, 2013, NYFOL produced ‘First Light’ at the Elizabeth Street Garden in NoLIta. Hundreds of New Yorkers attended and had the opportunity to experience in microcosm what will be seen at NYFOL 2014 in DUMBO.
“NYFOL 2014 will transform the nightscape of DUMBO into a magical place,” says O’Braion, co-founder of the festival, "and festival of light will definitely fill a void in the city’s cultural calendar.”
For more information, email [email protected]. To donate or get involved, contact Liam O'Braion at [email protected]. Check out the video of NYFOL below.