The Festival of Lights
Visit Lyon all year long with Air Corsica’s direct flights from Ajaccio and Bastia.Then in the summer from Calvi and Figari you can fly to Lyon the Rhone capital. A destination with a source of cultural wealth to discover all along the year and especially during the winter for the “Festival of Lights”.
Every year, lightning engineers, designers, video makers, architects, graphic designers, plastic artists and street performance companies who present new and surprising events in Lyon. Every street, place, edifice and monuments of the city are cover by light to show a wonderful performance for all the visitors.
The “Festival of Lights” of Lyon is a tradition created in the 19th century. Indeed, in 1850, the religious authorities of the city decided to launch a competition to create a statue that was supposed to become a religious signal and settled at the of the Fourvière Hill. Because of the rise in the Saône the inauguration was postponed on the 8th of December of 1852, however it was almost cancelled due to unfavourable weather.
In the end nothing happenned and every citizens of Lyon were totaly delighted and started spontaneously to light candles on their windows to thank the Providence.Thereby, once the sun was down the entire city was illuminated and that is how the tradition began and it created a Festival! Since that moment, every 8th of December Lyon residents light on lamps on their windows and stroll around the city to enjoy the sights of these wonderful lightning installations.
More recently, since 1989, the lighting of heritage sites, rivers, hills, districts, roads have been illuminating the city it contributes to night life and the beauty of the region. Since 1999, the Festival of Lights take place for four days and millions of visitors walk around the city during this period.
To attend to this enchanting performance, get on board with Air Corsica’s direct flights between Corsica and Lyon with the short hop of 50 minutes with an Airbus and 1h30 with an ATR!
