Pécs glows again this summer as the 10th Zsolnay Light Festival washes the city in color and motion from July 2 to 5, 2026. After dark, building facades, intimate courtyards, and rarely opened venues become playgrounds for light-based artworks by Hungarian and international artists. Over four nights and across multiple locations, the streets and squares pulse with immersive installations, architectural projections, and luminous surprises that draw crowds in the hundreds of thousands.
Vasarely in the Spotlight
This anniversary edition arrives with a double meaning: it coincides with the 120th birthday of Pécs-born op art pioneer Victor Vasarely and the 50th anniversary of the Vasarely Museum in Pécs. This year’s guiding theme embraces Vasarely’s PLASTI-CITÉ // COLORFUL CITY concept—an invitation into optical illusions and the sensory experience of movement, space, and light. Expect bold geometry, kinetic perception, and illusions that shift as you move.
Cathedral Becomes a Cinematic Canvas
Each night, the Zsolnay Light Art Video Mapping Competition transforms the facade of the Pécs Cathedral into the festival’s biggest screen. This year, creators from Italy, China, and Bulgaria face off for the audience vote with visuals steeped in Vasarely’s op art legacy. Alongside the competition, a special debut arrives via the festival’s Irish focus program: the Kiégő Izzók (Glowing Bulbs) collective unveils a tribute projection honoring the life and work of Ferenc Martyn.
The Path of Light: 34 Stops of Pure Imagination
The festival’s backbone, the Path of Light, stretches across 15 downtown sites and 19 stops in and around the Zsolnay Quarter. The Quarter and the Kodály Center become the main experience hub as part of Light Festival MAX, a wristband-access area featuring the most ambitious works. If you want to dive deep, these interactive, immersive projects are designed to fill an entire evening.
– Inside the Kodály Center, Latvia’s Those Guys Lighting presents Divine Geometry, a 30-minute, laser-sculpted light experience accompanied by a bespoke soundscape. Crafted with 24 lasers, it’s a distilled, emotional light ritual that has moved previous audiences to tears.
– At the Zsolnay Quarter’s Labor, Spanish artist Marc Vilanova unfurls a waterfall woven from light that visitors can walk through. In the E78 building, the Playmodes studio choreographs laser beams and robotic mirrors into floating, dynamic light sculptures.
– In the Quarter’s Pyrogranite Courtyard, a new installation lifts Vasarely’s op art into three dimensions. The geometry morphs with your movement, turning spectators into co-creators as they explore and play.
– The m21 Gallery launches a milestone exhibition: Hommage à Vasarely by Light. For the first time, a festival-born show extends through the entire summer, inviting visitors back through August for a long-view visual journey. In parallel, the Light Art Residency spotlights rising talents across the Quarter.
Downtown Reimagined
Iconic central sites also transform. At the Cella Septichora Visitor Center, a pulsing light-being fights for freedom inside a glass cube like a digital organism straining at its boundaries. Széchenyi Square receives a monumental 360-degree light painting, while Jókai Square welcomes back the festival’s totem creature, the Pixel Bug. Inside Árkád, technology and nature entwine as a giant LED wall evokes water’s memory in living detail.
A ’70s Psychedelic Flashback
On Színház Square, New York’s Liquid Light Lab resurrects the legendary analog light shows of the 1970s. Think Kandinsky’s palette splashed across the electric atmospheres of Jimi Hendrix and early Pink Floyd. Four nights, a floating, sensual universe, and Tilos Rádió (Forbidden Radio) DJs cranking the vibe to the max. More than a projection, it’s a communal, psychedelic dive into the realm of light—and part of the USA250 commemorations happening this year.
Art That Steps Into Everyday Life
“Art is a common language that should step out of galleries and become part of everyday life,” said Márk Hummel, head of the organizing Zsolnay Heritage Management Nonprofit Ltd. That philosophy shapes the Path of Light, which turns urban space into an open gallery and invites visitors into the creative process through interactive works and shared experiences.
More Than Light: Street Theater, Music, Family Fun
The four-day celebration spills far beyond projections. Fire jugglers, acrobats, and street theater troupes animate the city; families can jump into interactive kids’ programs and luminous craft sessions. Concerts and electronic parties keep the pulse going late into the night.
Irish Focus Adds Flavor
Beyond the Martyn tribute at the Cathedral, the Irish program includes a dedicated Path of Light stop and an Irish gastro courtyard on Káptalan Street. Expect Irish music and dance culture to weave into the festival’s texture, adding another splash of color to Pécs’s summer nights.
Tickets, Wristbands, Access
All outdoor downtown programs and light artworks are free. Installations in indoor venues, the Zsolnay Quarter, and the Kodály Center are part of Light Festival MAX and require a wristband, available from May 7. Dates are July 2–5, 2026, across multiple sites in Pécs. Organizers reserve the right to change dates and programs.
Pécs is the summer’s brightest highlight.
