Courtney Tait

Courtney Tait

Courtney Tait is a writer from Victoria, B.C. who lives in Portland. Read More

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a night image of the word LOVE spelled out in large letters made of hundreds of small bulbs attached to bicycles in front of a large brick building a night image of the word LOVE spelled out in large letters made of hundreds of small bulbs attached to bicycles in front of a large brick building
Credit: Photo by James AM Crawford

Portland Winter Light Festival

Brighten your February with glowing sculptures and thousands of twinkling lights.

Editor's Pick
3 min read
Courtney Tait

Courtney Tait

Courtney Tait is a writer from Victoria, B.C. who lives in Portland. Read More

Editor's Pick
This is a recurring event and we’re showing the details from its most recent past occurrence. We’ll update this page with future event info as soon as we get it. Please check back!
When
Feb. 3–11, 2023
Daily
Free
Where
City Wide

Know Before You Go

Portland Winter Light Festival returns over two weeks, Feb. 3–11, 2023, in a pop-up-like format where light art installations appear throughout the city instead of in a centralized location. The new format and expanded timeline will give visitors more space and time to view installations and minimize crowding. Visit the Portland Winter Light Festival’s website for maps of installation locations.

For a few nights each year, the Portland Winter Light Festival transforms the City of Roses into a city of lights. Designed to bring light to the wintry darkness, this free festival returns every winter season with imaginative works that combine light and technology to create interactive experiences.

We’re doing it to bring people together, and also to bring people out of the dark.

Portland Winter Light Festival Artistic Director Chris Herring

“We’re doing it to bring people together and also to bring people out of the dark,” says Festival Artistic Director Chris Herring. “We are trying to be the stepping stone to spring.”

The fifth iteration of the Portland Winter Light Festival in 2020 showcased 114 illuminated art installations, dozens of performances and live events, educational programming and mesmerizing kinetic fire sculptures throughout the city. The festival’s 150,000 attendees enjoyed a silent disco, an illuminated nighttime bike ride and lantern parade, live ice carving, dance performances and more.

In 2023, repeating the success of the 2022 festival format, organizers have created a decentralized footprint, allowing attendees more space and time to view installations and encouraging people to embrace the spirit of discovery and choose their own paths to explore the installations.

More About the Winter Light Festival

Where is the festival located?

The festival takes place at different locations around Portland but has anchor locations downtown at Pioneer Courthouse Square, the World Trade Center, and in the Central Eastside at the Electric Blocks at SE Second and Clay. Anchor locations will only be operating on weekends. These anchor locations will feature dynamic, large-scale artworks, music and food carts.

How do I get there?

Since traffic can become very heavy during the event — over 150,000 people attended in 2019 — taking public transportation is highly encouraged. The MAX Light Rail is one of the quickest and easiest ways to travel to and from downtown. It is also one of the best ways to get to the festival anchor locations. Biking is also an easy way to get to and around the festival areas. Maybe try out Portland’s bike-share system, Biketown.

Wait, the festival is outside in the winter?

Yes, isn’t that great? The festival is a reason to get out and celebrate winter with the entire community. Please dress warmly for Portland’s winter weather; warm coats and boots, gloves, and maybe bring an umbrella to keep you dry during the wet winter evenings.

The renewable-energy-powered festival is an extension of the Willamette Light Brigade, a nonprofit that’s been lighting Portland’s bridges since 1987. The mission of the Portland Winter Light Festival is to build community by bringing art and technology to inclusive audiences while invigorating Portland in the winter.

Inspired by European celebrations like the Festival of Lights in Lyon, France — an annual event that Herring says “blew his mind” when he attended in 2007 — the Portland Winter Light Festival combines creativity with various forms of light. Artworks might feature fire, tungsten lights, and LED lights, along with the playful use of reflections and shadows.

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Herring says that while the festival has no restrictions on installation size, artists must follow one rule: No white light. That ubiquitous shade is considered harsher and less aesthetically pleasing than other light forms. “The lighting that America uses all the time is super utilitarian,” he says. “The technology’s here to make it dynamic. You can create your own world.”

Artists throughout Cascadia (Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, Alaska, Idaho, and Northern California) submit proposals for these displays to a volunteer committee months in advance. During the festival, the chosen artists are on hand to speak with festival-goers and answer questions about their work.

“The [festival] has become a favorite wintertime destination for [our] community,” Herrings says. “And nothing showcases that more than our ability to bring in artists and performers from around the region.”

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