Wagner Park, the green space overlooking the Battery Park City waterfront, will be the new setting chosen to host the 2025 edition of Illumination NYC. After a lengthy renovation, the 3.5-acre park has become accessible to the public again in recent months, and in September it will be transformed into an open-air light laboratory. For three consecutive evenings, Sept. 25-27, the area will offer monumental installations and visual displays with the Statue of Liberty and New York Harbor as the natural backdrop.
The event is organized with the collaboration of the Battery Park City Authority and the Free Radical Design Group collective. Illumination NYC has been staged in the past in very different locations, from the Kosciuszko Bridge to the World Trade Center’s Oculus to Battery Park City’s Belvedere Plaza. The choice to move each year has allowed the festival to tie itself to recognizable cityscapes, transforming them into temporary settings. This year, in addition to artistic value, the location was also designed as a way to celebrate the reopening of one of the area’s busiest parks.
The program includes three free evenings, from 6:30 to 11 p.m., with monumental installations, musical performances, DJ sets and a concluding silent disco on Saturday night. Organizers said it will be “the most ambitious festival yet” and aims to engage a diverse audience, from families to tourists.
Similar festivals have been widespread for years in many European cities, such as Berlin or Lyon, where light has been used to enhance buildings and public spaces. In New York, the format has been adopted more recently and declined locally, choosing a different place in the city each time. Illumination NYC has emerged as the leading event of its kind, not least because of the scale of the organization and free access.
Visitors are invited to participate by dressing up in light-inspired clothing; those who do not have anything suitable will be able to find luminous accessories in the temporary store set up inside the park. In addition to the performances and installations, food and drinks will be available for purchase. Admission is free, but online registration is required.
The article In September Wagner Park will host Illumination NYC festival comes from TheNewyorker.
