The First Lighting Festival Concludes Successfully, Brilliant Lights Continue to Illuminate Guangzhou
On October 15th, accompanied by the melodious singing of Song Zuying, the first Guangzhou International Lighting Festival successfully came to a close. The 20-day festival attracted approximately 5 million tourists.
Government builds the stage, enterprises perform
From September 26th to October 15th, hosted by the Guangzhou Municipal People's Government together with the Lighting Urban Community International (LUCI) and the China Illuminating Engineering Society, organized by Guangzhou City Construction Investment Group Co., Ltd., Guangzhou Liangye Lighting Engineering Co., Ltd., Poly Real Estate (Group) Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou Ruiguang Lighting Technology Co., Ltd., the first Guangzhou International Lighting Festival adopted the "Government builds the stage, enterprises perform" model. It was coordinated by the Guangzhou Municipal People's Government, with Guangzhou Yangguang Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. as the planning and consulting agency, working with relevant municipal departments to provide supporting services, with enterprises investing independently, innovatively hosting China's first international lighting festival.
Opening Ceremony Scene
Opening Ceremony with Distinctive Features
On the evening of September 26, the opening ceremony of the first Guangzhou International Light Festival was successfully held at the North Square of the Guangzhou Tower. The opening ceremony used the nightscape of the city of Guangzhou as the performance backdrop, creating a grand lighting event that integrates technology and culture. Through three points—the air, the ground and the water surface—a three-dimensional stage was constructed, embodying the image of the «city light cube» of Guangzhou in the new era, allowing the audience to experience and feel the lighting technology and Chinese culture from multiple perspectives.
That evening, Zhang Guangning, Su Zequn and other leaders, the Consulates General in Guangzhou of 39 countries, and a total of 128 foreign guests from 5 Guangzhou international sister cities attended the opening ceremony. Almost all of the foreign guests expressed their admiration for the splendid scenes and organizational arrangements of the opening ceremony, and many of them were deeply moved. Among them, Hong Qiquan, Head of the Consular Corps in Guangzhou and Consul General of Singapore in Guangzhou, was so moved that he recorded his heartfelt feelings in the guestbook: “Tonight is the most beautiful and the most romantic night of my life. What kept unfolding before me were splendid pictures beyond my imagination. The achievements made by Guangzhou, Guangdong and the whole of China in economic and social development leave me in awe. I believe that, whether for the guests present or the citizens of Guangzhou, they will fully enjoy the unforgettable warmth and joy brought by this edition of the Light Festival!”
Party Secretary Zhang Guangning announces the opening of the Light Festival
High-value Exhibition
The "Guangzhou International Energy-Saving Lighting Exhibition," a concurrent event of the Light Festival planned by the Light Festival Organizing Committee, was successfully held from September 26 to 28 at the Pazhou Poly World Trade Center Expo. During the exhibition, many well-known lighting brands made their joint appearance, with exhibits spanning urban lighting and application products, LED and OLED lighting, energy-saving lighting application cases, professional lighting, and other fields. The event continued to draw large crowds, attracting many industry professionals from government procurement offices and road administration engineering units, as well as real estate developers, contractors, designers, wholesalers and others to visit.
Vice Mayor Su Zequn, Construction Committee Director Hou Yongquan, and representatives from the exhibition organizers—Cai Dongxiang of Poly Group and Liang Yi of Liangye Group—during their visit and inspection
Colorful, Dreamlike Light Show
From September 26 to October 15, an outdoor art lighting exhibition co-designed by the Beijing Tsinghua Urban Planning and Design Institute together with Light Cibles was held on Haixinsha Island, Huacheng Square, and along the banks of the Pearl River. Employing high-tech artistic lighting techniques, utilizing the existing permanent night lighting along both banks of the Pearl River and the new central axis together with newly constructed lighting installations, and supplemented with technical means such as water curtains, fireworks, music, and character performances, art and lighting technology were integrated. Through organized routing, multiple featured sites—including light animations, light shows, and light images—were linked together to form a nighttime themed activity, creating dreamlike artistic effects during the Light Festival while highlighting the regional characteristics of China and Guangzhou and promoting traditional historical culture and artistic features. This brought citizens unconventional, interesting behavioral and visual experiences.
Lighting Square - Tree of Life
Throughout the entire Lighting Festival, the outdoor large-scale art lighting show illuminates collectively at 7 PM every evening as the lighting ignition ceremony takes place. With the theme of "A Thousand Trees in Bloom at Night, Flickering Lights in the Distance," citizens and visitors entering the viewing area can see the wonderful combination of architecture and light and shadow, integrating a large number of traditional Chinese elements, such as drum lanterns featuring the Four Divine Beasts — the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise — shadow puppetry, hand shadow plays, and the popular sand painting and anime elements; animated images that make the past serve the present and the foreign serve the Chinese; landscape vignettes created by extracting Lingnan elements such as kapok flowers, the Pearl River, and boats... A dazzling array of breathtaking sights.
During the 20-day Lighting Festival, the opening night alone attracted nearly 100,000 visitors, mostly old Guangzhou residents who came with their families. During the National Day holiday, there were 200,000 to 300,000 visitors daily, with peak numbers reaching 400,000 to 500,000, and the estimated total number of visitors was about 5 million. For this reason, Huacheng Square added 140 security and cleaning personnel to handle regular visitor reception.
Brother City Representatives Full of Praise
The China Illuminating Engineering Society and Guangzhou Yangguang Culture Communication Co., Ltd. organized a conference on the theme of "Art Lighting and Urban Development" on October 14. The conference invited city lighting managers and industry experts from brother cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing, Xi'an, Wenzhou, and Zhaoqing to Guangzhou to inspect the Lighting Festival. The guests also believed that cities need not only to be beautiful during the day but also at night. Only in this way can cities have culture, and the beauty of cities is not merely about developing tourism and meeting the needs of life, but also about transmitting cultural atmosphere, enhancing urban taste, and promoting economic development. The Lighting Festival reflects the demand of the broad masses of citizens who have become prosperous after the Reform and Opening-up for artistic enjoyment.
Theme Conference on Art Lighting and Urban Development
Urban Lighting Construction Award
In order to reward the projects and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to Guangzhou's nightscape, the Light Festival Organizing Committee, Yangguang Company and the Asian Association of Lighting Designers (AALD) held the "Urban Lighting Construction Award (2011 · Guangzhou)" during the Light Festival. The Urban Lighting Award is divided into three categories: "Best Lighting Award", "High Efficiency Energy Saving Award" and "Outstanding Design Award". The Canton Tower, the West Tower and the Ten Bridges across the Pearl River stood out from over 30 projects and won the laurels. The Light Festival also set up a "Best Creativity Award" and a "Special Contribution Award" to commend outstanding Light Festival projects and individuals. On November 15, Vice Mayor Su Zequn presented medals and certificates to the winning organizations and individuals of the "Urban Lighting Construction Award (2011 · Guangzhou)" and the Light Festival's special awards at Haixinsha.
Award Ceremony (from left to right): Mr. Louis CLAIR, Deputy Director Chen Haiyan of the Lighting Environment Design Research Institute of Tsinghua University Urban Planning & Design Institute, Wang Jinsui, Chairman of the China Illuminating Engineering Society, Su Zequn, Standing Committee Member/Executive Vice Mayor of Guangzhou, Li Tao, Designer of Southwest Jiaotong University Design & Research Institute, Kang Siping, Vice President of Yuexiu Group, Huang Jiatian, Vice President of Guangzhou City Construction Investment Group Co., Ltd.
Grand Closing Ceremony
The closing ceremony and special evening gala of the Guangzhou International Light Festival was held on October 15, 2011 at Haixinsha. Renowned singers including Song Zuying, a celebrated representative of folk music, were invited to perform at the closing ceremony. First-class stage design, lighting, lasers, sound and fireworks were perfectly combined to create an audio-visual feast for the audience.
Light Festival Special Evening Gala
While the Light Festival drew to a perfect close, it left visitors with striking visual impressions and wonderful memories. According to relevant statistical data, a random on-site survey of 1,000 tourists showed that, regarding the overall evaluation of the Light Festival, 24.5% were very satisfied, 50.2% were relatively satisfied, and 13.2% were satisfied; 94% hoped that the Light Festival could continue to be held every year; and statistical data from a survey of 1,000 Weibo posts showed that 94% of visitors praised the holding of the Light Festival, believing that it greatly enhanced Guangzhou's night scenery. The most popular installations were the Tree of Life and the Light Tree in Water.
The Guangzhou International Light Festival will continue to interpret the charm of the city through light. We look forward to the next edition bringing us more amazement and joy!