A Day Out at Lumagica – Light festival with impressive illuminations

Dann and I have been pretty into light festivals over the last few years. We have gone to Lightopia, Chihuly: Reflections and Ashford Illuminates – which have all had a different feel to them. When in Norway, we figured we’d check out Lumagica, which seems to be a worldwide light festival, but is not one either of us had heard of or attended before. Lumagica was a unique experience, but most closely seemed to be a mix of Chihuly and Lightopia, in the way it was set up and ran.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Lumagica is set up as a walk, that basically guides you on where to go next. You find yourself starting in a big forest, with magical noises playing around you. It sounds like birds and animals are rushing about, despite it being dark and the only light coming from these sculptures. There are foxes, birds, mushrooms and butterflies in the first area, with the mushrooms really captivating Dann’s eye, as they were done so differently then ones we have seen prior. Beyond this, the forest continues, showing larger than life deer, that look amazing lit up at night. The sound at Lumagica really plays a key roll, as you move into an area with a giant, light up field and peacock, with a wheel that you can turn. We are unsure what this wheel did, but had a good time spinning it and effected the area. Many of the different animal sculptures in this area had cut outs to define their eyes or other details, some even with giant plastic heads to you know what they were, which was pretty neat.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The next area was a winter wonderland, full of whales, boats, polar bears, and many, many white lights. The sound effects in this area was completely different, giving you the feel of the water nearby, as you moved through the white area and saw the various bright sculptures. The polar bear filled with light balls was really breath-taking, as was the white tree, which can be seen outside the park that Lumagica is taking place in, drawing people towards the event. Ships quickly turn to a dragon – which was the most impressive light sculpture there, as it sunk into a stairway in the ground, with smoke coming out all around it, playing on the light.

There are some great photo opportunities built into the venue – with a giant light tunnel that brightens up any picture and a heart around the word BERGEN, which can be set up to take pictures in with your love. Trees are lit up, with rainbow colors, and at the back of one area there was another interactive feature, which was also a tree. This tree had three bowls in front of it, each with a ball hanging from a string. When you moved these balls into the bowl, it lit up, and the tree started pulsing with these colors. The bowls were the primary colors, allowing you to combine two to make a new color for the tree. If you put all three balls in all three baskets, the tree started glowing rainbow, which was really brilliant.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Lumagica has a small food area, which allows you to sit in a tented place and eat, but over all is a short, hour long experience as you walk around the area and take lots of photos. With that said, it’s an experience well worth going too, as the lights themselves are beautiful and the sound effects all around the walk really make it worth seeing. It is worth mentioning that this light festival had signs throughout that explained things, but these signs were only in Norwegian, so we were unable to read or understand them. We didn’t need the signs to enjoy the festival though, and had a great time walking around anyway. The Lumagica experience we went to was in Bergen, which is a pretty rainy city, so bringing an umbrella is a must.

• 

• 

• 

This post is a part of our Blogmas series, with each and every post being about Christmas or Winter.