This year will mark the ninth year of celebrating the Portland Winter Light Festival (PDX WLF), and will be held Feb. 2-10. This annual event revolves around interactive artwork through the usage of various light sources to bring joy during the dark winter months. The Willamette Light Brigade organizes the festival, featuring artists from all over the Pacific Northwest.
The theme for 2024 is Glowing Under Pressure, incorporating the deep sea and bioluminescence. Attendees can expect to see over 120 art pieces and performances concentrated in downtown Portland, as well as spanning throughout the rest of the city. Anchor sites will be featuring a cumulation of art pieces and local food truck vendors on the weekends of Feb. 2-3 and 8-9. Anchor sites include Pioneer Courthouse Square, World Trade Center Plaza, and the Electric Blocks at SE 2nd and Clay.
The event’s widespread layout encourages participants to explore the city. “A lot of the big ticket things are [downtown] but they’re aiming to have a little bit everywhere, to be more equitable,” says Jarrett Altman, a board member of the Willamette Light Brigade, the nonprofit that organizes PDX WLF.
At the upcoming festival, attendees can expect to experience “If The Rivers Could Sing, What Would They Say?” which will be an immersive light and sound installation. “We landed on this idea of representing a Pacific Northwest riverscape as it traverses from the Cascade Mountains, through the valley, and on to the ocean,” says Aaron Maples, landscape designer for Walter Macy, a landscape architecture business that is working on this collaborative project.
One special aspect of the festival is that it’s completely free to attend. “It makes art accessible, especially really cool, crazy, illuminated art like [ours] accessible for every[one] who wants to see it,” says Tyler Fuqua, president of Tyler Fuqua Creations. The PDX WLF helps build community, by getting people from Portland and beyond out on the streets together during the gloomy month of February.
According to PDX WLF’s website, 96% of visitors surveyed in 2023 said they would return. Lucy Warren, Franklin student and attendee since 2020, comments, “I appreciate how unique it is. I think that’s what keeps me coming back, because there’s really nothing else like it.” The festival has expanded a lot since its founding in 2016, welcoming 208,000 people in 2023, according to the PDX WLF Impact Report.
Altman mentioned that “[2023] was the first year the city of Portland [invested in the festival], because they were seeing it bring a lot of life and business downtown.” In recent years, the downtown area has lacked some of the hustle and bustle that it is associated with. So, the festival “is a welcome time, [to] come down and get out of your house and see that it’s safe,” remarks Altman.
The festival’s growth and increased popularity has allowed for more extravagant art pieces. For example, in 2023, Mechan 42, a robot created by Tyler Fuqua Creations, was the first ever commissioned piece for the light festival.
The WLF was brought to Portland after Jeff Schnabel, an architect and one of the founders of the event, took inspiration from similar events around the world such as the Festival of Lights in Lyon, France. The festival was launched nearly a decade ago at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) in collaboration with the Willamette Light Brigade, a non-profit arts organization responsible for the lighting of the Morrison Bridge.
The festival’s impact expands beyond Portland, with 16% of attendees being from outside the Portland Metro area. In addition, any artist from Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, Alaska, Idaho, or Northern California can submit a proposal for the volunteer committee to review.
There truly is something for everyone at the festival. “I really loved the trees made of lights [last year]! I remember there were several in Pioneer Square and they were each lit up in a different color,” recalls Warren. In contrast, she also enjoyed the person “playing a piano that had flames that would shoot up whenever he played a certain note.”
The Portland Winter Light Festival will continue to amaze. “That’s what the light festival is all about, a visual feast for your eyes,” explains Fuqua. Throughout the years, the festival has not only grown and drawn more attention, but has brought people together.
