The country's first and only light festival, the Zsolnay Light Festival in Pécs illuminates downtown Pécs with dazzling light creations every July. The buildings are clad in garments of light, the streets are carpeted with light, while the monumental façade of the Cathedral is brought to life by the best 3D cinematic projections of the international mapping competition.
The 4-day festival is a memorably experience for families and groups of friends in the Mediterranean city center of Pécs, with mappings paintings and numerous accompanying programs!
Ten years after the streets of Pécs had first lit up with the magic of contemporary light art, the jubilee 10th edition of the Zsolnay Light Festival returned bigger and more spectacular than ever before. From 2 to 5 July, for four nights, more than thirty artworks flooded the city with light. As part of the Vasarely Memorial Year, that year’s festival also paid tribute to the world-famous Pécs-born artist, Victor Vasarely.
By now, the event has grown into one of Europe’s most spectacular urban festivals, attracting more than 100,000 visitors every year. The 2026 jubilee edition coincided with two exceptional anniversaries: it commemorated the 120th anniversary of the birth of Victor Vasarely, the Pécs-born father of Op Art, while the Vasarely Museum celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding this year.
The central theme of that year’s Light Festival was therefore Vasarely’s PLASTI-CITÉ // CITY IN COLOUR concept – an invitation into the world of optical illusion, and into the sensory experience of movement, space, and light.
The Cathedral Façade as the Festival’s Largest Canvas
The festival’s most anticipated event, the Zsolnay Light Art Video Mapping Competition, is going to transform the façade of the Pécs Cathedral into a monumental light canvas every evening. This year, artists from Italy, China, and Bulgaria competed for the audience’s votes, with works deeply inspired by the visual language of Vasarely’s Op Art legacy. Alongside the competition, a special premiere also took place: as part of the Irish focus programme, the renowned Hungarian light-art team, Glowing Bulbs, presented a homage projection dedicated to the legacy of Ferenc Martyn.
The Route of Light: More Than 30 Stops at the Boundary of Imagination
At the heart of the festival lies the Route of Light, guiding visitors through 15 downtown locations and 19 venues around the Zsolnay Cultural Quarter, where they could discover the works of both Hungarian and international light artists.
This year, the Zsolnay Quarter and the Kodály Centre served as the festival’s main experience hub, as the entire area became part of the Light Festival Max programme. These venues, which could be visited with a pre-purchased wristband, hosted the festival’s most exciting installations, where interactive and immersive artworks offered such depth of experience that they could easily fill an entire evening. Let us offer you a teaser:
A Meeting of Soul and Light at the Kodály Centre: The Latvian team, Those Guys Lighting, brought Divine Geometry to Pécs—an installation built around 24 lasers and accompanied by a unique 30-minute sound experience. This essential light journey was so deeply moving that, apparently, at previous presentations, many visitors had been brought to tears by its overwhelming emotional impact.
In the Lab building of the Zsolnay Cultural Quarter, visitors could walk through a waterfall woven from light by means of Spanish artist Marc Vilanova’s installation, while in the E78 Concert Hall, the Playmodes collective created dynamic, floating light sculptures using laser beams and robotic mirrors. In the Pyrogranite Courtyard of the Zsolnay Quarter, a large-scale installation transformed Vasarely’s Op Art legacy into three-dimensional forms. This constantly shifting geometric illusion changed with the viewer’s movement, inviting active participation through motion and discovery.
A unique exhibition made its debut within the walls of the m21 Gallery: Hommage à Vasarely by Light, a light art exhibition that marked a milestone in the festival’s history. For the first time, the festival expanded beyond its four-day programme into a full summer exhibition, allowing visitors to experience this extraordinary visual journey at any time until the end of August. In addition, the young emerging artists of the Light Art Colony also presented their works in the Zsolnay Quarter.
The iconic downtown venues of Pécs were also transformed. At the Cella Septichora Visitor Centre, a pulsating creature of light trapped inside a glass cube struggled to escape, like a digital organism fighting for freedom. Széchenyi Square was surrounded by a monumental circular panoramic light projection, while the festival’s beloved totem creature, the Pixel Bug, returned to Jókai Square. Inside ÁRKÁD Pécs Shopping Centre, technology and nature met as the memory of water came to life on a giant LED wall.
At Színház Square, New York-style visual psychedelia came to life: the American Liquid Light Lab revived the world of 1970s analogue light shows, combining Kandinsky’s visual musicality with the atmosphere of concerts by Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, and early Pink Floyd. The "Route of Light" station at Színház Square was part of the USA250 commemorations.
More Than Light: Street Theatre and Festival
Beyond the light projections, the four-day-long festival also filled the streets with fire jugglers, acrobats, and street theatre performances. Families enjoyed interactive children’s programmes and light-themed craft workshops, while concerts and electronic music parties kept the city’s pulse alive late into the night.
This year’s programme was further enriched by a special Irish focus: alongside the Ferenc Martyn homage projection at the Cathedral, visitors could also discover Irish light installations and an Irish gastronomic courtyard in Káptalan Street. The spirit of the festival was made even more vibrant by the music and dance culture of the Emerald Isle.
Pécs is the highlight of the summer!
