Festival d'Arts Llumíniques | Llum BCN

About Festival d'Arts Llumíniques | Llum BCN

Llum BCN, is an annual festival of luminous arts, Festival de Artes Lumínicas, held in the Gloríes area of Barcelona and consisting of Street artistic light installations and shows.

The Barcelona Light Festival is a new addition to the Barcelona festival scene with the first being organised by Organised by Barcelona City Council and held in February 2012. The fourteenth edition of the festival was celebrated in February 2025.

The area below Gloríes can be described as former warehouses and light industry that is slowly being replaced by new build housing and modern glass and concrete office blocks. The occasional vintage or historic building remains within this mixed use city area as well as some modern warehouses buildings. Some of the historic warehouses have since been converted such as what is now the Razzmatazz clubs.

The festival aims to transform these mixed use urban spaces into street stages that highlight the possibilities of the language of visual light as an artistic medium, using tools such as projection, lasers, photography and audio elements. The displays use skills from design, architecture, stage design, digital arts and contemporary art fields to demonstrate the creative possibilities of light.

Over three days, the streets of the upper Poblenou Neighbourhood and lower Sant Martí neighbourhood is transformed. The epicentre of the festival is the Barcelona Design Museum (design Hub) and Torre Gloríes (illuminated gherkin tower) and make a good meeting and starting point to explore the streets

The installations are designed by professional artists and many of the technical and artistic universities of Barcelona as well as some residents associations. Some businesses also participate by contributing the façades of their office buildings for the projections.

The festival is a fast growing attraction on the Barcelona Events calendar attracting about a quarter of a million or more visitors.

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Visiting Festival d'Arts Llumíniques | Llum BCN

Because light is the principal medium of the festival it is a nocturnal festival with late opening on Friday and Saturday nights.
• Friday: 19:00h to 01:00h
• Saturday: 20:00h to 01:00h
• Sunday: 19:00h to 23:00h

Special opening times exist for exhibits inside the Barcelona Design Museum.
• Friday: 19:00h to 01:00h
• Saturday: 10:00h to 18:00h & 19:00h to 01:00h
• Sunday: 10:00 to 18:00h & 19:00h to 23:00h

Note that although a street festival with the street exhibits being in pedestrianised streets, the roads between the exhibits are not closed to vehicle traffic so pay attention when crossing the streets between displays.

The Torre Gloríes viewpoint, Mirador Gloríes offers a 50% discount on ticket prices. The viewpoint is open during daylight hours so is a worthy attraction to visit before the start of the festival.

There will be a reduction in the usual urban-lighting intensity at some of the sites where LLUM BCN artistic installations are located. Stay alert and be careful when you are walking around.

Some of the light installations use flashing lights and bass frequencies so may not be suitable for people with photophobic (light sensitivity) conditions that are triggered by bright lights or flashing lights.

There are multiple street food caravans and restaurants in this area.

Getting to Festival d'Arts Llumíniques | Llum BCN

Address: Plaça de les Glòries, Barcelona. 08018

Llum BCN is served primarily by the red (L1) metro line with the best stop being Gloríes. Getting off at Marina will tak you to the lower streets of the festival. You can also access the lower streets of the festival from the yellow (L4) line from Poblenou, Bogatell or Llacuna stops.

Barcelona Tram also runs up Avinida Meridina and down Avenida Diagonal. See the Barcelona Travel Hacks Llum BCN transport map in the documents section for all the public transport stops.

Documents for Festival d'Arts Llumíniques | Llum BCN

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Where to stay overnight in the Fiesta de Llum Barcelona