The lights will turn on again this weekend in Eindhoven for the 18th edition of the GLOW art festival. There are 24 works of art to admire on the five-kilometer route through the city center. All that lighting will cost more electricity again this year.
During the 9-day festival, the light artworks consumed 4,750 kilowatt hours in 2022. Last year all the lights went out at 10 p.m., this year everything can be admired again until 11 p.m. As a result, total consumption is now approximately 150 kilowatt hours higher, Enexis calculates. This year’s art festival will consume as much electricity as a hundred households in the Netherlands in nine days.
Isn’t that a shame in these times of climate change? Peter Lemmens, who at Enexis arranges for the works of art to be connected to Glow, says no.
“The more people who come to enjoy this edition of Glow, the less energy they use at home. If all festival visitors had stayed at home in 2022, they would have used a total of 813 megawatt hours. This would provide 320 households with energy for the entire year.”
This year the theme of the festival is ‘The Beat’ or the rhythm of the city. New compared to previous editions is that there is a central ending.
Powerful laser beam
This year, GLOW has at its disposal – according to the organization – the most powerful laser in the world. This can be observed up to 80 kilometers away. In dry weather, the laser beam is turned on every day at 10:30 PM and off again at 11:00 PM as a signal to the entire region that GLOW will be closed for that day.
“It is not a laser show but purely a very strong green beam of bundled light that points upwards,” said a Glow spokesperson.
The laser was built by the German manufacturer Trumpf, which has been around for 100 years. An industrial laser has been specially converted into an event laser, Trumpf said in an email press release. “This laser uses very little energy, and yet our research shows that it is the most powerful show laser in the world,” said project manager Philipp Barthold.
Villages
If you don’t feel like going to Eindhoven, you can also go to Best, Geldrop, Mierlo, Waalre and Oirschot this year. Light art can also be seen there for the first time, including at the mill in Mierlo and the Weaving Museum in Geldrop.