Birmingham Light Festival brightened up the dark winter nights for the first time in 2025. The festival returns from 12-15 February 2026.
From 12 - 15 February 2026, Birmingham Light Festival will once again transform a series of city centre locations into a spectacular gallery of illuminated artworks. Encouraging Birmingham residents and visitors to explore and see the city in a different light, installations and artworks will bring the post-Christmas winter nights to life.
Aiming to create a sense of playful curiosity and spark joy, Birmingham Light Festival 2026 will feature a series of extraordinary artworks, encouraging visitors to come together and explore the city. A number of the festival's illuminated artworks remain in place after the festival, as organisers commit to brightening city spaces more permanently over time.
Credits
Birmingham Light Festival is a City Curator Project, a role fully funded by Colmore BID. It was established and brought to life for the first time in 2025 with thanks to the full support of all five city-centre BIDs. OPUS are the producers of Birmingham Light Festival. You can read more about the team working on Birmingham Light Festival here.
Origin
All great ideas have to start somewhere, and the seed of the idea of Birmingham Light Festival began to truly grow with the delivery of a test event in March 2024. Alex Nicholson-Evans (City Curator), Outdoor Places Unusual Spaces and Colmore BID joined forces to bring a dazzling mirror ball installation to the city centre. Our Beating Heart popped up in Snow Hill Square between Thursday 21 to Saturday 23 March. This giant heart-shaped mirror ball eflected natural light during the day, and as the sun set, it transformed the space with fantastical dancing lights and an eye-catching wash of colour. Visitors to Our Beating Heart were invited to share their thoughts and that insight informed our thinking and planning of the festival that made it's debut in Feburary 2025. You can read more about this part of the Birmingham Light Festival journey here. In 2025 we delivered a successful first festival attracting over 64,000 visits and with thanks for a whole host of fantastic supporters, the festival will return in 2026.