Frequently asked questions
You can consult the Festival of Lights program on the festival website.
Printed copies are available from the Tourist Office, the city centre festival booths, OnlyLyon information points and local shops which belong to the My Presqu'île network.
Festival opening hours of the Tourist Office on place Bellecour: December 7 to 10 from 9am to 10pm.
Festival booths:
- Place Louis Pradel (1st district)
- Place de la République (2nd district)
- Place Edouard Commette (Old town, 5th district)
Opening times:
- Saturday December 2 and Wednesday December 6 from 12pm to 7pm: Place Louis Pradel, Place de la République and Place Edouard Commette
- From Thursday December 7 to Saturday December 9 from 12pm to 10pm : Place Louis Pradel, Place de la République, Place Edouard Commette (only until 4pm)
- Sunday December 10 from 2pm to 8pm : Place Louis Pradel, Place de la République
►List of OnlyLyon information points
►List of shops in the My Presqu'île network
Festival of Lights 2023: from Thursday 7 to Sunday 10 December.
From Thursday 7 to Saturday 9 : 7pm to 11pm.
Sunday 10 : 6pm to 10pm.
Parc Blandan / Place Abbé Pierre : 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Please note that the parks entrance will close 30 minutes before the end of each evening.
Discover the 7 thematic universes of the 2023 program proposed by the Fête des Lumières team:
Visitors with a disability can find all the information they need on our dedicated page.
For families with children, check out the Family Friendly selection, specially designed for them.
The Fête des Lumières is a free festival, with no admission charge. It is financed by the City of Lyon, with the support of local businesses, who become sponsors of the festival in various ways: by contributing cash, by making a donation in kind or by directly financing a light project. Public partners also help to co-produce and finance certain works of art.
3 special food zones have been installed in the city centre and festival:
- Place Bellecour (2nd district)
- Parc Blandan (7th district)
- Place Gabriel Péri (7th disctrict)
Tête d'Or park (6th district):
• General entrance is located at "Porte des enfants du Rhône", Place Général Leclerc.
Blandan park (7th district):
• General entrance is located at this address: 37 rue du Repos
You can find the location of public toilets on the lyon.fr interactive map.
3 supervised toilets (Bellecour, St Jean and République) will be open from 8am to 11.30pm throughout the Fête des Lumières (7, 8, 9 and 10 December).
During the festival, dogs are forbidden to enter Tête d'Or park and Blandan park.
In the city center, in the pedestrian zone, they're allowed except for dogs of categories 1 & 2.
The Festival of Lights is taking place in the city centre in a delimited, pedestrian zone. There are about forty pedestrian entry points, roughly one every 100 metres. Cars, motorcycles, scooters, bicycles and e-scooters are not authorised in the zone.
The best way to get around is to use public transport (TCL).
► Journey planner
► Further information
Lyon offers a 24/7 self-service bike-sharing scheme (Vélo’v) with docking stations located throughout the city centre and surrounding area. Please note that Vélo'v bikes like all other individual modes of transport (e-scooters, bikes etc.) are not authorized in the pedestrian zone.
The disabled car parks are located on rue Bienner (2nd district) and between n°9 & n°16 of Boulevard des Belges (6th district).
Parking bays for coaches can be found on:
Quai Sarrail and Quai Augagneur (7 to 10 December)
Quai Victor Augagneur on the west side, between Pont Wilson and Pont de la Guillotière.
Quai Rambaud (9 & 10 December)
On the Saône side between Cours Bayard and Rue Dugas Montbel.
Depending on your departure point, you have a wide choice of travel options during the Festival of Lights.
The Lumignons du Cœur campaign supports a different charity every year. A collaborative light installation is created using the candles bought by visitors and the proceeds go to charity.
If you are a bright spark with a great idea for a festival installation, you need to submit your project during the call for projects launched every year in April on the Festival of Lights website.
The Festival of Lights has been integrating energy efficiency for many years, which is also one of the pillars of the City's lighting plan. The amount of electricity consumption linked to the Festival of Lights is very low.
For example, a classic mapping (projection) on a building facade consumes 12 kWh. This corresponds to a hundred televisions on for an hour.
The main purpose of ISO 20121 is to factor sustainable development into events organisation.
The City of Lyon has carefully controlled the energy consumption of the Festival of Lights for many years. Based on the findings of a study conducted in 2019, the energy consumption of the Festival of Lights only accounts for 0.1% of the total annual lighting bill, i.e., 0.36 day of annual energy consumption. This figure can be explained as follows:
- the light installations mainly use LEDs which are highly energy-efficient,
- the equipment used offers good energy performance,
- the permanent lighting of a number of heritage sites (Saint-Jean Cathedral, the Law Courts, Fourvière Basilica, Les Célestins theatre) is switched off during the Festival.
In line with the City’s sustainability and energy transition policy, the Festival of Lights is preparing for ISO 20121 Events Sustainability certification which will induce adaptations to the event from 2023.
In parallel, an environmental impact criterion will be included in the selection of artworks.