GLOW Eindhoven 2026 Opens November 7 with the Theme “CONNECT” and the City’s First Drone Show

The 2026 edition of GLOW, a festival of light art in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, takes place from Saturday, November 7 to Saturday, November 14. The theme is “CONNECT.” A circular route of about 5 km runs through the city center, and works are also placed in the surrounding towns of Best, Oirschot, Veldhoven, Helmond and Lieshout. At the Philips Stadion, the festival will stage a drone work that the organizers call a first for Eindhoven. Based on announcements by the GLOW Foundation, which runs the festival (May 21, September 28, 2026 and others), and information on its official website, this article covers the theme, the drone show, the route and main works, the program in the surrounding region, admission and how the festival is run.

GLOW is a free light festival held in Eindhoven every year since 2006, and it reached its 20th edition in 2025. According to the official website, it began when the city council sought to breathe new life into Eindhoven’s identity as the “City of Light,” and Signify (formerly Philips Lighting) and the Municipality of Eindhoven became its founding partners. It is a festival that a lighting company and the city have sustained together. Dates and open calls for the world’s major light festivals are covered in our roundup of light festivals around the world 2026–2027, and calls in Japan whose funding covers drone shows are covered in our article on subsidies for illuminations and projection mapping.

The theme “CONNECT”: A new director’s first edition

In an announcement dated May 21, 2026, GLOW reported that it had first presented an outline of the 2026 edition the previous evening at its annual Preview Event. The event was held at the Steentjeskerk in the city and drew a large crowd.

According to the announcement, the theme “CONNECT” centers on encounters, collaboration and connection between people and technology, between makers and audiences, and between Eindhoven and the Brainport region. The theme page carries the words “Where it all begins.” and explains that the works are created through collaborations among international and local artists, young talent, schools, residents and others. The festival will feature indoor and outdoor projections as well as temporary and permanent installations.

The same announcement introduced the new festival director, Philip Ross, describing him as a designer, researcher and entrepreneur working at the boundary between art and technology, who this year leads the festival’s artistic direction for the first time. His predecessor, Ronald Ramakers, led GLOW for 10 years and handed over to Ross after the 20th edition in 2025.

In the announcement, Ross says this year is not about what he will change. He says he will preserve and strengthen the good things that make GLOW what it is, and create new, meaningful work together with everyone involved.

Philips Stadion: The city’s first drone work

New to the 2026 edition is “The Breathing Collective,” staged at the Philips Stadion and created by the Eindhoven design studio TWOFIFTYK. In its September 28 announcement, GLOW described the work as Eindhoven’s first drone experience. According to the May announcement, it marks GLOW’s first return to the Philips Stadion since 2019. The string of drone show Guinness World Records set in 2026 is covered in our article on drone show records.

The work is a roughly 15-minute piece choreographed specifically for the stadium, and it also uses the stadium’s lighting system supplied by Signify. From the stands, spectators watch the movement, combined with light and sound, at eye level with the drones. Its subject is the relationship between the individual and the collective; the work page explains that everyone wants freedom, but just as much wants to belong to a group.

Marijn Vos, art director of TWOFIFTYK, says the aim is not simply to fly drones but to create a world in which points of light behave like living individuals. Sjors van den Boogaart, director of the Philips Stadion, says the stadium will open its doors wide during GLOW, including to people who do not usually come to the stadium.

The show runs for eight nights, from Saturday, November 7 to Saturday, November 14, with four performances each night at 18:30, 19:15, 20:00 and 20:45. Tickets cost €2 per person (plus fees) and went on sale on September 28 at gloweindhoven.nl/tickets. There is no box office at the stadium; tickets are sold online only. Children aged 3 and under are free when accompanied by a guardian, and wheelchair tickets are available. Performances may be canceled if the weather prevents the drones from flying safely. In that case ticket holders will be notified by email and sent a link to rebook another performance, but there will be no refunds. Ross says buying a ticket supports GLOW’s efforts to make special projects like this possible.

The city-center route: A loop of about 5 km

The route in Eindhoven is a loop of about 5 km around the city center. According to the May announcement, it passes 18 Septemberplein, Victoriapark, Emmasingel, Stadhuisplein, the Catharinakerk, Smalle Haven and the Markt, among other places. There is no fixed starting point; visitors can start walking from anywhere on the route. As of October 25, the official website gave differing numbers of works: the practical information page says “about 30,” while the regional page says “24.”

In-Line v360 (Stadhuisplein)

A 360-degree enveloping spatial work by the Turkish studio Nohlab. It can be experienced from outside and from within, and the work page explains that shifting geometric collages, lines and spatial illusions emerge from a combination of sound, motion and light. The May announcement said Nohlab would create a large 13.5 m installation on Stadhuisplein.

MACHINA (18 Septemberplein)

A work by the Flemish artist collective BOBOLITO&Co. From September 4 to 30, GLOW invited people to submit selfies on its website. The photos are turned into line drawings and cut out of Plexiglas, and some 1,000 portraits are suspended above the square to form a single light work. The line drawings are inspired by the line portraits of artist Alexander Calder. Short messages recorded along with the photos are woven into the soundscape around the work.

The May announcement had introduced the work for 18 Septemberplein as “Macchina” by Tom & Lien Dekyvere. The September 3 announcement and the work page give the artist as BOBOLITO&Co and the title as “MACHINA.”

Contours of the City (Clausplein)

A work by Ploeg-e, an Eindhoven collective of writers, the city poet, light artists and designers, in collaboration with the regional public health service GGD Brabant-Zuidoost. On Clausplein, in front of the organization’s headquarters, glowing human silhouettes gather to form the city’s skyline. The project marks the 100th anniversary of GGD Brabant-Zuidoost, and its director, Anne-Marijn de Wit, says GLOW offers an opportunity to engage in dialogue with a broad cross-section of people in the region.

BRICK (Markt)

On October 20, GLOW announced that the LEGO Group would be a new partner for the 2026 edition. Captain Energy, a team made up of Jan Fabel, Pim Rongen and Erwin Steijlen, translates the visual language of LEGO bricks into light, rhythm and motion in a light show of about five minutes on the facades surrounding the Markt. It is the team’s sixth time presenting a work at GLOW.

Other works

• “Behind The Walls”: A work by Belgian artist Nathalie Maufroy that looks at the Steentjeskerk with fresh eyes.

• “Signal CP1919”: Light artist Ricky van Broekhoven of the Eindhoven studio Oscillating Matter shows, for the first time outdoors, a work based on CP1919, a rapidly rotating neutron star, on Ventoselaan.

• “Wij zijn Eindhoven”: Self-taught Eindhoven oil painter Daan van der Linden enlarges his oil portraits of well-known Eindhoven figures at high resolution and lights them from within (PSV Parking O-Oost).

• Rabobank’s light project: Rabobank teams up with Beeldjutters to connect the city, sport and GLOW, with PSV Eindhoven at its core.

• “Fable Light (Fabellicht)”: A work by Hugo Vrijdag and children. It tells a story through shadow play, surrounded by spiral lanterns that the children made one by one. It is shown at the Catharinakerk and at sites throughout the surrounding region, and 15,000 local children take part in an educational program held in schools from September 2026.

Five surrounding towns: 12 works in Veldhoven

GLOW also places works outside the city. In 2026 the venues are Best, Oirschot, Veldhoven, Helmond and Lieshout. On the official website, the Lieshout works are listed on the “GLOW Laarbeek” page. Hours in all these towns are 18:30–22:00, ending an hour earlier than in Eindhoven (18:30–23:00).

As of October 25, the regional pages of the official website list 12 works in Veldhoven, nine in Best and six each in Oirschot and Lieshout, all including “Fable Light,” which is shown in each town. The Helmond page lists only “Fable Light.”

Veldhoven features “Connecting your Love” by ASML and Efteling, “Flower of the Universe” by Titia Ex and “Sunflowers for Van Gogh” by Hugo Vrijdag, among others. Oirschot, which invites visitors to experience its heritage from a new perspective in its historic center, hosts works including “Silent Voices” by Sigrid Sandmann and “The Walk” by Titia Ex. Best shows works including “FACES” by ONDA studio and “Human Tiles” by OCUBO.

Helmond will also host the work selected through the “Talent Call,” an open call GLOW held for the first time this year. The call invited makers from the Brainport region to propose light installations for GLOW 2026, and according to the May 21 announcement it received more than 40 entries. The selected work is “GLOW Dance Collective” by Jolie Smets and Robin van Soelen, an installation in which visitors move together and experience connection in a playful way.

Admission and hours: The route is free, the drone show €2

The practical information page of the official website explains that GLOW is a free light festival held in public space. The only paid element is the drone work at the Philips Stadion (€2 per person), and a paper map is sold for €2 during the festival. An interactive online map is also published ahead of the festival.

The entire route is wheelchair accessible. The organizers advise people prone to epileptic seizures not to attend. Because through traffic is closed on some roads in the city center from 18:00 to 24:00 every day during the festival, the organizers recommend coming by public transport or bicycle. The city has two stations: Eindhoven Centraal and Strijp-S.

Guided tours are also available. The official website introduces a free guided tour by ASML, tours by Eindhoven247 and a food walk with three courses at three restaurants, among others.

Dates: Saturday, November 7 – Saturday, November 14, 2026
Hours: Eindhoven 18:30–23:00; surrounding towns 18:30–22:00
Venue: Eindhoven city center (route of about 5 km), Best, Oirschot, Veldhoven, Helmond and Lieshout (the Netherlands)
Admission: Free (“The Breathing Collective” at the Philips Stadion is €2 per person, plus fees)
Organizer: GLOW Foundation (Stichting GLOW)
Official website: https://gloweindhoven.nl/en/

Organization and scale: A nonprofit foundation and “hundreds of thousands” of visitors

GLOW is run by a nonprofit foundation, which the official website describes as an organization driven purely by its mission rather than by profit. A small core team works year-round and expands before and during the festival in November. The founding partners are the Municipality of Eindhoven and Signify, and the logos of ASML, BIZ Eindhoven Centrum, Rabobank, Photon Jobs, TNO and Smart Photonics appear as main partners. MACHINA was made possible with the support of the Friends of GLOW.

The official website describes visitor numbers as “hundreds of thousands.” The wrap-up of the 20th edition in 2025 (November 8–15), published on November 16, also gave no exact figure. Ramakers said he would not be surprised if more than one million people had visited GLOW in Eindhoven and the surrounding region, while noting that an exact count is impossible. According to the same wrap-up, in the annual visitor survey by research firm Markteffect, 65% felt the festival is for everyone regardless of background or position, and 43% said it strengthens connections among people in the region.

The number of works has grown. According to the timeline on the official website, there were 15 works in 2006, 21 in 2010, 26 in 2015 and 33 in Eindhoven alone in 2024. For the 2025 edition, GLOW announced before the opening that there would be 87 works across the city and the surrounding region, calling it the largest number of any light festival in Europe.

On March 9, 2026, GLOW won the Grand Prix at the 2026 National Event Awards, presented at a national events conference in Zandvoort. Abroad, local company Traffic Light de Mexico held “GLOW Mexico” in Puebla, Mexico, under GLOW’s supervision, and GLOW announced that 297,111 people visited over the first weekend, April 11 and 12.

Editor’s perspective

Operationally, the 2026 edition stands out for keeping the format of a free festival while introducing low-priced tickets only for the venue with limited capacity. The roughly 5 km route and the works in the surrounding region are free, and only the drone work at the Philips Stadion costs €2 per person. The work page explains that the stadium’s capacity is limited, and Ross says ticket purchases help make the work possible. At a low price, the approach combines admission control with a way for audiences to share part of the cost.

The other feature is the number of ways to take part. “Fable Light,” involving 15,000 local children; “MACHINA,” made from about 1,000 selfies; the first “Talent Call” for makers in the Brainport region; and the “Talent Awards,” in which the audience and a jury choose works by young local talent (audience award €1,000, jury award €2,000), all take place during the same festival. The official website sets strengthening social cohesion through connection and creativity as GLOW’s central goal. The theme “CONNECT” can be read as reflecting this goal both in how works are selected and in how people can participate.

Visitor numbers need careful handling. In its 2025 wrap-up, GLOW gave no exact figure, offering only the former director’s remark that he would not be surprised if it exceeded one million. As Ramakers himself acknowledged that an exact count is impossible, counting attendance at an open-access, route-based event is difficult. Published attendance figures for light events in Japan are compiled in our roundup of attendance and economic impact of light events. When comparing GLOW’s scale, it is more reliable to use concrete figures the organizers provide, such as the number of works (87 across the city and surrounding region in 2025) or the number of participating towns. Berlin’s Festival of Lights likewise did not explain its counting method when it announced about 3 million visitors in 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Is GLOW Eindhoven 2026 free?

The works along the route are free to see. The only paid element is the drone work “The Breathing Collective” at the Philips Stadion, at €2 per person (plus fees). The paper map sold during the festival also costs €2.

When and where can I see the drone show?

It is performed at the Philips Stadion every night from Saturday, November 7 to Saturday, November 14, four times a night at 18:30, 19:15, 20:00 and 20:45. Each performance lasts about 15 minutes. Tickets are sold online only; there is no box office at the stadium.

Are there venues outside Eindhoven?

Works are also shown in Best, Oirschot, Veldhoven, Helmond and Lieshout. Hours in each town are 18:30–22:00. Lists of works are on the regional pages of the official website.

*Information as of October 25, 2026. Please check the official website for the latest information.

*Top image: TWOFIFTYK’s light show “GAME:ON” at the Philips Stadion (Photo: Bart van Overbeeke, from GLOW’s announcement of May 21, 2026)

*This article was compiled by the TOKYO ART SPHERE editorial team based on official announcements by the GLOW Foundation (November 2025 – October 2026) and information on its official website (as of October 25, 2026).

Text: TOKYO ART SPHERE Editorial Team