Berlin Festival of Lights, What to Expect (Our 2024 Trip Plus 2026 Dates)
We were in Berlin for the 2024 edition of the Festival of Lights and came home with hundreds of photos and beautiful videos or art coming to life. In our opinion its definitely one of the best free events in Europe that is actually worth booking a flight. Here is everything you should know about what the festival actually is and what we saw in 2024. We will also dive into where the main locations are, and the dates for 2026.
What Is the Berlin Festival of Lights
The Festival of Lights has run every autumn since 2005, founded and directed by Birgit Zander. It started as a way to bring light and life to Berlin’s dark October evenings, and it has grown into one of the most attended light art festivals in the world, drawing more than two million visitors a year. We visited the festival with very low expectations but were compeltely blown away by how amazing the festival turned out in the end.
The idea is simple but beautiful. For ten nights in October, around fifty locations across central Berlin are illuminated from 7pm to 11pm. Local and international artists create original projections and installations for each building. Nothing feels generic, every piece is designed specifically for the architecture or ground it sits on, whether that is video art, 3D mapping or a light sculpture. Each edition has a central theme that ties all the installations together.
Entry is completely free and in the open space. You just walk the city at night and move between lit landmarks, and central Berlin turns into an open-air gallery for the week and a half. It is one of the rare events that actually lives up to the hype.
Our 2024 Trip, Celebrating Freedom
We visited during the 20th anniversary edition, which ran from 4 to 13 October 2024, daily from 7pm to 11pm. The theme was Celebrating Freedom, chosen to mark the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It felt like an edition with real weight to it, a city that was divided for 28 years lighting up its landmarks with art about freedom, three and a half decades on.
Around fifty locations took part with roughly seventy individual works on display, and the artists came from all over the world. What struck us most was how the lights interacted with the location it was projected on. These were not generic light shows projected onto whatever wall was free. Each piece responded to the specific building, its history and its architecture.
We made our way through the displays from the TV Tower at Alexanderplatz to Berlin Cathedral, and with good weather on our side, walking the city at night became one of our favourite parts of the whole trip.
Brandenburg Gate
This is one of the festival’s most photographed locations every year, and in 2024 it did not disappoint. Animated projections played across the columns shifting between abstract colour and imagery connected to the freedom theme. The square in front fills up fast, but the gate is wide and tall enough that you can still find a good vantage point. We got our best shots right in front of the gate.
Berlin Cathedral, Berliner Dom
The cathedral sits right on Museum Island, and the projections here felt especially dramatic reflected in the Spree behind it. Several international artists contributed pieces to this location, each one using the domes and facade differently. If you only have time for one spot on Museum Island, make it this one.
TV Tower at Alexanderplatz
The TV Tower is hard to miss even on an ordinary night, and during the festival it becomes a landmark you want to see from a distance rather than standing right underneath it. We found the best views a few streets back, where you can take in the full height of the tower lit up against the sky.
Bebelplatz
This square is surrounded on three sides, which the festival uses well. The projections wrap around the State Opera facade and the surrounding buildings, so you genuinely feel you are immersed within the display lights. It is one of the more atmospheric spots and worth timing your visit for when it is a little less crowded. In our opinion, if you can visit only one place during the lights festival, make it this one.
Potsdamer Platz
We did not expect much here going in, and it ended up being one of our surprise favourites. A large floor installation lit up the whole square, and it was a nice change of pace from the building-facing projections everywhere else. Potsdamer platz also had small flowers glowing with light which were installed all over the platz and it turely changed the overall look of the Platz compared to our last visit.
Nikolai Quarter
Out of everywhere we visited, this felt like the most intimate. The narrow streets of Berlin’s oldest neighbourhood are lined with smaller installations, including a crystal flower display that was one of our favourite quieter moments of the whole trip. My sister and i took lots of pictures here because it was alot quiter here vs. the bigger platzs.
Victory Column
The golden statue on top of the Victory Column catches the light installations on the column below in a really dramatic way. It sits in the middle of Tiergarten, a short walk from Brandenburg Gate, so it pairs naturally with an evening route that covers both ends of the Unter den Linden area.
All the Key Locations from 2024
| Location | District | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Brandenburg Gate | Mitte | The flagship location; arrive early for the best spot |
| Berliner Dom (Cathedral) | Mitte, Museum Island | Multiple international artists, a lovely reflection in the Spree |
| TV Tower (Fernsehturm) | Alexanderplatz, Mitte | Best viewed from a distance for the full effect |
| Bebelplatz | Mitte | Three sided projections, State Opera facade is a standout. Our favourite spot |
| Potsdamer Platz | Tiergarten, Schoneberg | Floor installation was our surprise highlight |
| Nikolai Quarter | Mitte | Most intimate atmosphere, look for the crystal flowers installation |
| Victory Column | Tiergarten | Pair with a Tiergarten walk, the golden statue amplifies the light |
| St Mary’s Church | Mitte, Alexanderplatz | Historic brick church, striking architectural staging |
Dates for 2026 (and What We Know About 2027)
2026, Colours of Love, 9 to 18 October
The 22nd Festival of Lights runs from Friday 9 October to Sunday 18 October 2026, daily from 7pm to 11pm. The theme is Colours of Love, exploring love in its many forms, romantic, familial, political and urban. Confirmed recurring locations include the Brandenburg Gate, Berliner Dom, TV Tower, Bebelplatz, Potsdamer Platz, the Nikolaiviertel and Charlottenburg Palace. The full programme is usually published closer to the date on festival-of-lights.de. Entry is free, as always. If this is your first time in Berlin, make sure to plan your visit around the Festival of Lights if you can, you wont regret it.
| 2026 Festival | Details |
|---|---|
| Dates | 9 to 18 October 2026 |
| Hours | 7pm to 11pm daily |
| Theme | Colours of Love |
| Edition | 22nd Festival of Lights |
| Entry | Free |
| Full programme | festival-of-lights.de, published closer to the date |
2027, dates not yet announced
The 23rd Festival of Lights has not announced dates or a theme yet. Historically, the festival lands in the second week of October, and previous years’ dates have usually been confirmed the following spring, so it is worth checking festival-of-lights.de if you are planning around it.
How to Get the Most Out of It
Go on a Weekday
The festival runs for ten nights, and weekend evenings, especially Friday and Saturday, draw noticeably bigger crowds at the most popular spots like Brandenburg Gate and Berliner Dom. Visiting on a weekday gives you a lot more room to actually look at and photograph the installations. The art itself does not change by day, only the crowd does. We went on Friday night at the begining of the festival and hence were part of a massive crowd of tourists and locals.
Plan a Route, Not a Checklist (this is what we did)
It is tempting to try to see everything in one night. We would not recommend it, the festival is better experienced slowly. A good evening covers the Mitte cluster on foot, specially if the weather is nice, you will really enjoy the crisp autumn air and the lights display. Brandenburg Gate, Bebelplatz, Berliner Dom and the TV Tower at Alexanderplatz, which takes about two to three hours with time to actually pause at each stop. Charlottenburg Palace is worth saving for a second evening given the distance, and Potsdamer Platz sits conveniently between the two clusters either way.
Start Around 7:15 to 7:30pm
The lights switch on at 7pm, but arriving a little after gives the installations time to settle in and the sky time to go properly dark. The projections show much better against full darkness than against a still blue dusk, also worth the wait if you are taking videos and pictures. You have until 11pm, which is plenty of time for a full route.
Dress for October
Berlin in October is beautiful but genuinely cold once the sun goes down, especially when you are standing still looking up at a building. A warm coat, comfortable shoes and a scarf are non-negotiable. If you are a coffee lover, grab a latte and enjoy the walk. The afternoon can feel mild and the evening will still catch you off guard.
Photography Tips
This festival is a photographer’s dream and most people show up with some kind of camera. A few things that helped us, the projections cycle through different images on loops of varying lengths, so watching for a few minutes at each spot gives you a much better range of shots than a single photo. A tripod or steady surface makes a real difference for low light long exposures. For the TV Tower specifically, step back further than feels necessary; the full height is hard to capture from directly underneath. But most importantly enjoy the festival!
