Festival of Light 2016: Purple Route

This year the Festival of Light included a route into the center of Jerusalem. This is not the first time that there have been installations outside the Old City. The first Festival of Light included the City Hall (Iriya). In the photo above, the central Post Office is lit by colored lights that are activated by hitting the mailboxes across the street. This is shown in the video below.

Eiffel Tower, by Luminarie De Cagna, Italy.

Love Jerusalem is an elaborate ad for the “Friends of Zion” museum, but it’s cleverly done. A video follows the photo.

Balls of Light, by Siddhartha (Israel) didn’t knock my socks off but it was a brilliant piece of marketing–after hiking around the Old City for a couple hours, most people would welcome the opportunity to sit down at one of the restaurants or cafes in Nahalat Shiva.

Festival of Light 2016: Photos from the Red Route

The photos above and below are of the installation at the Church of the Dormition. A woman in an elaborate costume sang opera (sounded like Puccini) in front of the church, which was lit by projections. A lot of people liked it but I honestly didn’t enjoy it. The alley behind the church is extremely narrow and it became a bottleneck with crowds of people standing and shooting videos and phone pics. The scale was bizarre–you could either view the woman on a small raised platform or the church, but not both, because of the small viewing area.

“Reflection of Co-existence,” by Cochavi & Klein, Israel.

“Northern Lights,” by Aleksandra Stratimirovic, Sweden.