32 artists and studios from 12 countries show their art at the LUNAR festival

The event begins tomorrow, May 11th, and the subway will have extended working hours until 1 a.m. on each of the four nights.

Art by over thirty artists and creative studios from 12 countries will offer the program of the second edition of the LUNAR Festival of Lights in Sofia. The artworks of artists from Bulgaria, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Spain, Italy, Poland, Romania, Thailand, Ukraine and Sweden will illuminate twenty four locations in the capital, in the four evenings between 11 and 14 May (Thursday – Sunday), from 21:00 until midnight. Video and static 3D mapping works will be projected onto the buildings in a loop, and the light installations will have their lights on for the duration of the event so that the public can enjoy them all.

Among the artists will be the seven finalists in the first International Video Mapping Competition “We are Skills”, part of the festival organized by MP-STUDIO, with the support of the European Parliament in Bulgaria. Their artworks will be displayed on the facade of the Regional History Museum – Sofia. Together with some of the most famous Bulgarian painters Kalina Hristova, Nikolay Panayotov, Rumen Rachev, Svilen Blazhev and Stiliana Uzunova, the works of German artists Birgit Sander and Daniel Bandke will shine on the facade of the Hyatt Regency Sofia. Another famous German will show his art during the event – the artist and photographer Heinz Kutzdas, whose work Positive Vibrations, originally created on the Berlin Wall, will find its new look on the façade of the Sofia Ring Mall.

On Slaveykov square two of the most famous Bulgarian graffiti artists, Jah One and Mouse, who will show their artworks on the facade of the State Agency Archives, will be joined by the British graffiti artist with an attitude towards nature, Fauna Graphic. A favourite point on the light route will be the light installation by the Swedish artist Philip Jakobsson, which will light up and provoke the audience who will pass through Bulgaria square.

The rich festival programme will be at the fingertips of every visitor via the LUNAR Festival of Lights mobile app, which can now be downloaded for free for iOS and Android: https://lunarlights.eu/app.

In order for the residents and guests of the capital to quickly and conveniently get to the festival areas, this year Sofia Municipality is extending the opening hours of the capital’s metro until 01:00 a.m. Along with this, access by public transport to the first location of the festival, which is outside the central part of the city – Sofia Ring Mall (214 Okolovrasten pat Str.) will be facilitated. The mall is extending the opening hours of its bus line, with the route Sofia Ring Mall – Business Park metro station until 23:15 (last bus from the mall).

Easier passage between the locations will also happen thanks to the closed for cars “Tsar Osvoboditel” Blvd. (in the section between “Georgi S. Rakovski” Str. and. “Dondukov” Blvd. and “Oborishte Str. (from Vasil Levski Blvd. to Alexander Nevski Square).

For anyone wanting to move faster from one light work to another, festival partners Cyrcl will be providing a special discount code for the use of the company’s bikes, which will be active on all festival nights and can be found on the festival’s and Cyrcl’s social media pages.

All locations will be free to visit and the full event programme is here: https://lunarlights.eu/program/ and on the mobile app.

The organizer and main artistic team behind the festival is the Bulgarian visual effects studio MP-STUDIO, in partnership with one of the most famous light festivals in the world Festival of Lights International Productions GmbH. The event will be held with the support of the European Parliament in Bulgaria and the Representation of the European Commission in Bulgaria, Sofia Municipality and under the patronage of the Chairman of the Sofia Municipal Council Georgi Georgiev and will be free access for all residents and guests of the city.