{
  "id": 17749232,
  "title": "Tired of the Winter Blues? The Unique Festival of Lights Zagreb Marks the Much-Anticipated Arrival of Spring",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/02/tired-of-the-winter-blues-the-unique-festival-of-lights-zagreb-marks",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-11-02T05:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Smithsonian",
    "slug": "smithsonian",
    "url": "https://www.smithsonianmag.com/sponsored/tired-of-the-winter-blues-the-unique-festival-of-lights-zagreb-marks-the-much-anticipated-arrival-of-spring-180989751/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Last spring, Zagreb’s Lower Town dazzled residents and visitors with an enchanting tunnel of spiraling neon and color. Meanwhile, the city’s Upper Town’s Park Opatovina transformed under UV light, showcasing a stunning bioluminescent world of plants. Along Strossmayerovo Promenade, historic layers were evoked through glowing vintage lanterns, as part of the Festival of Lights Zagreb, an annual event that has united art, design, architecture, and entertainment for a decade. Since 2017, the Zagreb Tourism Board, in collaboration with the City of Zagreb and its partners, has organized this incredible merging of the city’s past with contemporary art. The event, featuring over two-dozen illuminated installations, attracts thousands of attendees and transforms streets, parks, squares, promenades, tunnels, and buildings into canvas-like attractions. This free-to-experience spring event has been part of the Festival of Lights International network since 2017, which has brought light art to cities worldwide. In 2017, the festival debuted in Zagreb to welcome the arrival of spring, quickly becoming a record-breaking event with 26 light installations across 21 locations in 2026. Croatian artists like Alex Brajković, Ida Blažičko, and Tina Marković, along with international artists from Europe such as Charles Pétillon, Javier Riera, ILLUMINOS, and INOOK, have contributed to the festival’s diverse and imaginative displays, which include large-scale architectural projection mapping, 3D video art, and multicolored illuminations. The festival also emphasizes broader values such as international exchange, peace, tolerance, sustainability, and environmental awareness. In 2026, the World Wildlife Fund Adria partnered with the festival to present the immersive \"Blue Pulse\" 3D mapping projection at Upper Town’s Gradec Plateau, highlighting the impacts of global warming and plastic pollution on marine life.",
  "summary": "From March 17 to 21, 2027, Croatia’s capital transforms into a dazzling open-air gallery, illuminated by light installations and artworks from local and international artists",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}