Beyond 67 Million Visitors: Decoding the Industrial Impact and Industry Insights of the Guangzhou International Light Festival
sourcewww.lightingchina.com.cn
time2025/11/19
- As a global urban lighting landmark that has been running for 13 consecutive editions, this renowned event is a world-famous city light-art IP.
The 2025 Guangzhou International Light Festival will be held from November 16 to 26. As a global urban lighting landmark that has been running for 13 consecutive editions, this renowned event is not only a world-famous city light-art IP, but also a key platform for technology implementation, scenario innovation, and industrial integration within the lighting sector. It provides a valuable practical model that supports the industry's high-quality development.
Rendering of the Installation Welcome to GZ light
Technology in Application: Tech-Driven Innovation for an Immersive Lighting Experience
This year's Guangzhou International Light Festival adopts the theme "Smart Bay Area | Vibrant National Games", with technological innovation woven throughout the entire event. By incorporating AIGC technology, interactive projection, and other advanced tools, the festival creates a massive immersive light-and-shadow experience space, driving a shift in lighting from passive viewing to active participation. This not only enhances audience engagement but also expands the application boundaries of smart lighting.
Renderings of the Haixinsha Water Stage installation
Future Blue City
Renderings of the Three-Tower Linked
Light Show
The Three-Tower Synchronized Light Show has become a technical benchmark. For the first time, Canton Tower, East Tower (CTF Finance Centre), and West Tower (IFC) achieved fully coordinated lighting interaction. Through joint debugging technologies and algorithmic optimization, the system precisely controls color, brightness, and flashing frequencies, overcoming the long-standing challenge of synchronizing lighting across multiple landmark buildings over long distances. Low-energy LED technology has been widely adopted—such as the micro point-light sources used in the bamboo-themed artwork "Breaking Bamboo". These solutions deliver soft, high-quality visual effects while practicing green, low-carbon principles, perfectly aligned with the industry's sustainability goals.
Scene Integration: Cross-sector Collaboration Expands New Dimensions for Lighting Applications
The Light Festival deeply integrates with the 15th National Games and the 32nd Guangzhou Garden Expo, creating a diversified experience of "flowers by day, lights by night, and games around the clock", promoting cross-sector fusion between lighting, cultural tourism, sports, and horticulture.
Rendering of the work Beating Galaxy
Rendering of the work Beating Galaxy
The integration of lighting with sports scenarios offers strong industry reference value. The work "Tide Rising and Surging" uses wave-like lighting effects combined with live performance, while "Beating Galaxy" creates sound-light-electricity interaction through an array of illuminated drums, binding lighting closely with the spirit of athletic competition and providing an integrated "technology + culture + art" approach for large-scale sports event lighting. In its first collaboration with the Garden Expo, lighting installations complement Lingnan floral displays, creating a new “fusion of flowers and light” scene and opening an innovative path for cultural-tourism lighting through the "lighting + horticulture" model.
Industry Empowerment: Cluster Effect Activates a New Lighting Industry Ecosystem
The Guangzhou International Light Festival adopts a "government builds the platform, enterprises take the stage" model to promote cluster-based development of the lighting industry in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area. Data shows that the festival has already attracted 70% of mainland China’s stage lighting and audio companies to establish themselves in Guangdong, forming a complete industrial chain from equipment R&D and engineering construction to operation and maintenance, thus strengthening the region’s industrial competitiveness.
Rendering of the work Bananarama Watercolors
Rendering of the main sculpture The Laurel Crown
Citywide participation builds an interconnected industrial network. The upgrading of lighting facilities across 162 buildings, 9 bridges, and several shoreline areas and piers on both sides of the Pearl River has driven full industrial-chain involvement. Multiple enterprises, commercial districts, and cultural-tourism landmarks have created immersive booths and installations aligned with the festival's theme, accelerating the shift of lighting products from "single-device supply" to "integrated scene-based solutions". Meanwhile, the Guangzhou International Light Festival, now successfully held for 13 consecutive editions, has attracted more than 67 million visitors in total and has indirectly boosted cultural-tourism consumption, generating massive market demand for the lighting industry.
Industry Value: Setting Benchmarks and Guiding the Future of the Lighting Industry
Rendering of the artwork Yuexiu Pavilion
As a renowned event recognized by UNESCO during the "International Year of Light", the Guangzhou International Light Festival has established itself as an industry benchmark. Its practices demonstrate that the lighting industry is shifting from "providing illumination" to "creating value". Looking ahead, the industry must focus on three key directions: breaking core barriers through precise control and low-energy-consumption technologies; expanding application boundaries through cross-sector scene integration; and improving ecosystem development through industrial synergy and collaboration.
This grand event not only enhances Guangzhou’s urban lighting quality and global influence but also conveys a development logic of "technology empowerment + cultural expression + industrial collaboration", providing valuable insights for the innovation and upgrading of China's lighting industry.