Sharjah Light Festival turns landmarks into canvases

Sharjah Light Festival returns to dazzle audiences once again with the activities of its 15th edition, organised by Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA).

To date, the festival has included 13 different locations across Sharjah, transforming them into vivid artistic and light-based canvases.

As always, the festival offers a distinctive platform for creatives and artists to present new light and interactive experiences in the form of exceptional artworks — each carrying a story and a message of meaning and impact.

In Sharjah city, Al Majaz Waterfront presents “The Pulse of Belonging” — an installation that feels alive, as light stretches through the space to create a shared moment that visitors naturally step into. As people gather, it becomes more than an artwork: a meeting point, a photo spot, and a beautiful pause within the city, with a welcoming and refined spirit.

In the end, it leaves a clear message: belonging is not only a place, but a moment we live together.

Among this year’s standout shows is also “Threads of Memory,” which transforms Al Jada into layers of ornamentation, with light carefully composed and intentional details that carry warmth and familiarity — like heritage returning with a contemporary signature without losing its soul. With visitors’ movement, reflections shift and new angles appear... like memories resurfacing quietly in beautiful moments. The show at Al Jada is a cultural echo that reminds us that belonging resides in what we know, inherit, and carry forward.

In “Light Between Words,” the House of Wisdom shimmers with a 3D light projection that tells the journey from silence to expression, and from isolation to belonging. The work celebrates the manuscript not merely as a historical artifact, but as a living symbol — reminding us that wisdom grows when light is shared, and that belonging blossoms between the words we exchange.

A gentle light emerges from the darkness, grounding the emotional dimension of light as knowledge.

The manuscript becomes a glowing facade, while books float around it as if the landmark’s walls are giving birth to living stories that embody the multicultural nature of learning. Here, belonging is not granted — it is made through participation. As the visual rhythm intensifies, the building’s facade ripples like sand, turning the landmark into a constellation of light, a narrative that affirms knowledge knows no borders.

The show concludes with a striking transformation, as the forms of Arabic calligraphy gradually take shape from the preceding scenes — an ending tableau that reflects Sharjah’s commitment to creativity, culture, and celebration.

In the Heart of Sharjah, Sharjah Fort shines as one of the festival’s most prominent landmarks, as its historic facade becomes a luminous, living canvas telling the story of “Call For A Wish.”

This interactive video-mapping artwork transports viewers into a vibrant fantasy world across the wall.

Passersby are invited to approach the “Wish Catcher” and whisper an unknown wish, which then materializes as light that forms and evolves on the facade, triggering a sequence of visual effects.

As the journey completes, the wish joins those before it, illuminating the facade with a shifting surreal tableau — woven by everyone’s wishes into a shared fabric of dreams and hopes.

The festival, which attracts tens of thousands of visitors from within the UAE and abroad, continues until 15 February and presents exceptional light shows that celebrate the beauty of engineering and the architectural details of the emirate’s monuments, landmarks, and cultural heritage.

Meanwhile, “Light Village” continues until 22 February, featuring the participation of a large number of diverse national small and medium-sized enterprises, offering visitors multiple experiences and options that cater to varied interests.

As for ticket outlets for entry to Light Village, tickets are available to the public at the ticket counter near the village’s main gates, opposite the University City Hall in Sharjah, in addition to the Platinumlist website: https://sharjah.platinumlist.net/en/.

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter