The Leipzig Festival of Lights is an evening of remembrance, togetherness and artistic engagement with the Peaceful Revolution of 1989. Light installations, projections, soundscapes and meeting places throughout Leipzig city centre make history visible and tangible.

To enable as many people as possible to experience the Leipzig Festival of Lights independently, this page brings together information on accessibility. All projects are wheelchair-accessible and can be reached by people with limited mobility. It also presents the individual projects and provides information about visual and audio content. This includes descriptions of texts, images, projections, lighting effects, sounds and spatial settings.

This information can help you prepare for your visit and makes the artistic works easier to understand even if certain impressions cannot be perceived on site, or can only be perceived to a limited extent.

Accessibility is part of the Leipzig Festival of Lights’ commitment to responsible event planning – from mobility and communication to providing access to the light installations with as few barriers as possible.

Please note: This page is still under development and is being continuously expanded and updated. 

On Grimmaische Straße, the Civil Movement Archive Leipzig is displaying ten large-format photographs from 1989. Students taking the advanced history course at the Gerda Taro School selected and commented on them as part of an archive education workshop. Alongside providing historical context, the main focus was on the following questions: How do the historical events of 1989 in Leipzig relate to the challenges of the present day? What inspiration can they offer?

© Emilie Dias

Faces of Light is a site-specific installation. Projectors cast portraits of people who were involved in the autumn of 1989 onto the windows. Beams of light extend into the public space, connecting the façade, projection and audience. The installation responds directly to the architectural features of the site and translates the events of the Peaceful Revolution into a spatial image. 

© László Zsolt Bordos

“Awakening - Transformation - ? United in Diversity” is a multi-part performance by the TARO TANZ dance company. In four sections, the project traces a path from the hopes surrounding the political changes of 1989 and the upheavals of the post-reunification years to current threats to democracy and the question of what it means to live in freedom today. Around 140 pupils from Years 6 to 12 developed urban and contemporary choreographies combining set sequences with improvisation. Excerpts from earlier dance pieces, speeches and projections interweave the pupils’ personal voices with historical reflection. This creates powerful images of hope and disappointment, of threats to democracy and society – but also of freedom in diversity, community and the courage to stand up for one’s values.

The main performances start at 19:15, 20:30, 21:30 and 22:30 and each last approximately 30 minutes, with short dance interventions in between. Performances will take place on the stage throughout.

© Dave Grossmann

The traditional candle platform in the shape of the number 89 will be located at St Thomas’ Church, on the corner of Klostergasse, in 2026. The candles' podium '89 offers a quiet moment of remembrance, as well as an opportunity for dialogue. Presenter Nils Straatmann will speak with contemporary witnesses . The discussion will address, among other things, the question “stay or leave?”, which was widely debated in the autumn of 1989, as well as hopes and fears, the significance of the 9ᵗʰ of October then and now, and topics such as media freedom, the environment and the Church. 

© Lichtfest Leipzig

Katja Heitmann collects and preserves “human movement”. More than 2,500 people have already donated their personal movements. In PERPETUUM, visitors to the Leipzig Festival of Lights now encounter “movement donors” who took part in a workshop in Leipzig. They will become visible on a monumental scale on the 9ᵗʰ of October. Visitors to the Leipzig Festival of Lights stand opposite them and hear the stories behind the movements. In a sea of light, their own movement also becomes visible. 

At the project workshop, people from very different sections of urban society came together. The participants reflected Leipzig’s diversity: employees from companies such as DHL worked with just as much dedication as pupils from Leipzig schools and participants in courses at VILLA. 

© Emily Hoppe

The artist collective mammasONica transforms the courtyard of the former Stasi headquarters (Matthäikirchhof) into a monumental projection surface. A seemingly austere filing cabinet appears – a symbol of a system that collected information and shaped reality. Drawers open, archives are set in motion, and order begins to dissolve. A poetic image of change emerges from this rigid structure. Digital animation meets handcrafted stop-motion using modelling clay – technical precision encounters visible deformation.

The work does not reconstruct events, but allows us to experience how systems shape perception – and how collective imagination can change them. 

© Andreas Schmidt