Brixen Water Light Festival ©

From 29 April to 16 May 2026, the historic centre of Brixen is transformed into a vibrant stage of light, sound and art as the Water Light Festival © returns, one of Europe’s most anticipated light art festivals. This year’s edition presents an exceptional programme featuring over twenty installations and performances spread across the city. It is a special edition: for the first time, the festival forms part of a European project dedicated to peace, Imagine Peace.

Twenty-three artists and collectives from 13 different countries will create installations, projections and immersive works that engage in dialogue with architecture, waterways and urban space. The city thus becomes an open-air laboratory, where light is not merely an aesthetic medium, but a language — a shared experience and a catalyst for encounter.

Water is life, light is art — and this year, light also becomes the language of peace. The theme of peace runs through the entire festival more strongly than ever before: from interactive sculptures inviting visitors to move beyond the ego, to projections that tell stories of resistance and memory. Each installation is an invitation to pause, to observe and to reflect. The Water Light Festival has never been just a spectacle; it has always been a place of meeting, dialogue and connection between people and communities.

It is no coincidence that the Water Light Festival is a partner of the European project IMAGINE PEACE, a network bringing together five international light art festivals and co-financed by the European Union. Alongside festivals in Denmark, Germany, Norway and Croatia, Brixen takes part in a shared journey exploring the role of light art as a cultural tool for imagining and building peace, actively involving artists, citizens and local communities.

The Water Light Festival is not only an evening event; it is an invitation to slow down, to see the city with new eyes and to allow oneself to be touched by essential questions. In a complex time, light becomes a fragile yet necessary sign, a sign that does not impose answers, but opens up spaces.

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