Kitchener 
On Saturday, September 19, 2026, Uptown Waterloo will be illuminated as the city hosts Lumen, a free public festival dedicated to the interplay of light, art, and technology.
PHARMAKON; Lumen 2026
Running from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., the free, all-ages festival will spread across Uptown Waterloo, from Silver Lake to Waterloo City Hall, with more than 30 visual, interactive, new-media and performance-based installations by local, national and international artists. The festival is produced by the City of Waterloo’s Arts and Creative Industries team, Create Waterloo.
Now in its ninth year, Lumen brings together more than 50 artists and transforms familiar parks, civic spaces, galleries and streets into a walkable nighttime arts experience.
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What to See at Lumen 2026
The 2026 program ranges from monumental outdoor light works to installations that respond to visitors’ voices, gestures and movements. There are also digital artworks, sound experiences, dance, live electronic music, science activities, crafts and gallery programming.
PHARMAKON: Sabrina Ratté’s PHARMAKON is an interactive installation where a handmade herbarium becomes a portal into a virtual garden. Its nine printed pages trigger different video environments created with 3D animation, analog video and visual-recognition technology, exploring the duality of medicine and poison through natural science and occult traditions. Presented by Ed Video Media Arts Centre, the installation is at the intersection of Caroline St. and Erb St.
Empreintes Sonores: Created by Victor Drouin-Trempe and Jean-Philippe Côté, Empreintes Sonores explores the digital traces created by everyday listening technologies. A voice-activated system continuously captures, remixes and visualizes sounds, allowing visitors to move through what feels like a frozen soundscape. The work won a 2024 NUMIX Award for International Digital Art. Find it at the Centre for International Governance and Innovation (CIGI).
Plenum: Plenum by Wireframe Studio in collaboration with Audiotopie turns hand movements into changing patterns of light and sound. Two theremin-inspired stations control three illuminated “light organs,” with participants altering rhythm, intensity and luminous flows simply by moving their hands through the air. The work makes invisible forces such as movement and energy perceptible through sound and illumination. Plenum will be in Waterloo Public Square from September 19 to October 19, 2026.
OCULUCIS: Italian artist Hermes Mangialardo’s OCULUCIS features two monumental luminous eyes suspended in space. The glowing forms appear to watch visitors while inviting them to question the difference between simply looking and truly seeing. Mangialardo uses light as both a visual material and a metaphor for perception, turning the surrounding space into a meditative environment. See it at Waterloo Park (Shoreline).
Switch/Grass: Treehouse Collective’s Switch/Grass transforms a field of glowing reeds into an interactive landscape inspired by ecological reciprocity. Touching designated illuminated cattails triggers waves of light and wind-instrument sounds that move through the installation. An earlier 2026 version featured 1,500 light reeds and 22,500 LEDs, linking human interaction with the rhythms of plant ecosystems. Experience it at Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery.
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Terra Precarium: Sculptor Garrett Gilbart’s Terra Precarium transforms salvaged steel into intricate organic forms inspired by lichen and other resilient natural structures. The sculptures incorporate illumination, microphones, motors and sensors that respond to movement, proximity and touch, turning the installation into a changing sound environment. The work examines industrial decay, environmental change and nature’s capacity for resilience. Find it at the Waterloo City Hall.
The Lost Library: Created for Lumen, The Lost Library transforms the Waterloo Public Library’s James J. Brown Auditorium into an uncanny library suspended between memory and imagination. Visitors can explore forgotten objects, flickering screens, maps and photographs, search a card catalogue, peer into a microfilm reader and uncover hidden messages. The all-ages installation runs September 19 from 6 PM to 11 PM at the Main Library.
Bring Your Friends: Sebastian Bevelander’s Bring Your Friends continues the Guelph-raised multimedia artist’s playful exploration of technology, engineering and audience participation. Expect another hands-on experience built around interaction and experimentation. Located at Waterloo Park (Shoreline).
Chatter ‘o’ Scope: Chatter ‘o’ Scope is created by Valeriya Naboikina and sound artist Igor de Bagneux. De Bagneux’s practice combines electronic and electroacoustic music with storytelling, technology and interactive experiences, often encouraging audiences to listen and respond in new ways. The collaboration adds another sound-centred experience to Lumen’s 2026 program and is located at Waterloo City Hall.
Chromatic Dialogue: atelier Brume brings Chromatic Dialogue to Lumen, adding another light-based work to the festival’s nighttime landscape. Full details of the installation are yet to be published by the festival, leaving some of the experience to be discovered on site at William Street Lot.
Inflow Polyphony: Inflow Polyphony is a collaboration by Germaine Liu, Meghan Cheng and Mark Zurawinski. Liu is known for tactile and participatory sound works that use percussion, found objects, movement and improvisation to encourage collective listening.
MEGAMOJI: Multimedia duo DarkRooms, Jonah Kamphorst and Jackie Levitt, presents MEGAMOJI at Grist Mill. The artists specialize in combining electronic music, projection, LEDs and immersive visuals to transform unconventional spaces, and previously turned Waterloo Park into a glowing pop-up dance party for Lumen.
Mind Mirror: Eden Schwinghamer presents Mind Mirror, a new-media project developed in part through Toronto’s InterAccess IA Gateway 2026 program. InterAccess provided Schwinghamer private gallery access for prototyping, development, and documentation earlier this year. Find it at Waterloo City Hall.
Moment: Lighting and projection artist Melissa Joakim brings Moment to Lumen. Joakim’s multidisciplinary practice combines light, projection, scenography, sound and interactive media, with extensive experience creating immersive visual environments for theatre and performance. The installation continues her exploration of how light can shape mood, perception and the experience of space. Experience it at Waterloo Park (Shoreline).
Peony and Saffron; Lumen 2025
Phantom Monuments of Waterloo: Paige Smith’s Phantom Monuments of Waterloo brings local history and memory into the Lumen program. Smith’s interdisciplinary practice uses installation, moving image, performance and archival research, including her recent examination of the history of eugenics in Kitchener-Waterloo. Her Lumen work continues that interest in the stories embedded in places and the ways history is remembered or overlooked. Find it at the Visitor Information Centre.
Golden Pretzel: Waterloo artist Esther Slevinsky’s GOLDEN PRETZEL is a large sensory sculpture exploring our relationship with food. Visitors can see glowing “salt” lights, smell a fresh-bakery scent, feel the soft fabric surface and warmth of the sculpture, and even stand behind its loops for a pretzel hug and photo. The installation is located at the Visitor Information Centre and is sponsored by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany Toronto.
Polyrhythmic Illuminations: Polyrhythmic Illuminations brings together Gary Kirkham, Rob Gorbet, Matilda Pawlega and Shaan Sawrup at Waterloo Park (Shoreline). The project translates ideas associated with overlapping rhythms into an illuminated visual experience, linking patterns of light with musical structure.
The Commons: Immersive media artist and electronic musician Alex MacLean presents The Commons at Waterloo City Hall. MacLean works with sound, light, code, interactive installations and projection mapping, often designing environments that react to their audiences.
The Machine Remembers You: Andrew O’Connor’s The Machine Remembers You joins the festival’s technology-focused installations at Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery. O’Connor has previously created interactive work in which visitors are monitored, and their movements transformed into visual records, prompting questions about surveillance and how technology observes us.
The Things That Hold Us: Multidisciplinary artist Janet Hinkle presents The Things That Hold Us. Hinkle works across installation, sculpture, gatherings and time-based media, with recurring interests in sustainability, biodiversity, conservation and relationships between people and the natural world.
TV Me!: TV Me! is a collaboration between Elysha Poirier and Ryan Mason. Poirier has worked for more than two decades across animation, visual art, interactive design, and VJ performance, including work for theatre, dance, and electronic-music events. Find it at Waterloo City Hall.
Water Wishes: Water Wishes brings together Pat the Dog Theatre Creation and Dust and Soul Dance. Dust and Soul, led by longtime professional dancer and choreographer Tara Butler, creates contemporary dance performances and participatory movement projects throughout Waterloo Region. Performances will occur at 6:30 pm, 7:30 pm, 8:30 pm, 9:30 pm and 10:30 pm at Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery.
Winter: Sherri Hay’s Winter is presented by the Student Art Innovation Lab at the University of Waterloo. Hay’s practice explores time, change, and relationships between human and non-human forces, often combining discarded materials such as plastic and Styrofoam with water, air, sand, and other elemental materials. Find it at the Visitor Information Centre.
Together, these projects broaden Lumen beyond a conventional light festival. The 2026 program moves between playful digital interaction, experimental sound, public memory, dance, environmental art and questions about surveillance and technology, giving visitors very different experiences as they make their way through Uptown Waterloo.
Science, Engineering and Hands-On Activities
Waterloo’s science and technology community is also woven into the festival.
The University of Waterloo Engineering Outreach team at Waterloo Public Library will host the Engineering Uptown Lab, while the university’s Institute for Quantum Computing presents Quantum Quest. Science Outreach will operate the Science of Shadows Studio, adding family-friendly experiments and discovery activities to the evening.
At the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery, programming includes Neon Canada: The Art of Electrified Glass, neon-inspired postcard making and the gallery’s exhibitions. Button Factory Arts Centre will offer a glowing mask craft, while other activities across the festival include lantern making at the Visitor Information Centre, glow-in-the-dark tattoos at Waterloo Public Library and glow-in-the-dark nails at Waterloo Public Square.
Visitors can pick up a glow-in-the-dark bracelet or light-refraction glasses at the Waterloo Public Library, courtesy of Create Waterloo, while supplies last.
Dance, DJs and Live Music
Lumen is not confined to visual art.
DJ King Kadeem and DJ Nitemare will provide live DJ sets during the festival, while Waveform Collective presents live electronic music at Waterloo City Hall. The program also includes Dance The Night Away, an Infinity Dance Floor (at Waterloo Public Library), and Lion Dancers (at Waterloo Public Square), turning parts of Uptown Waterloo into performance spaces as the evening progresses.
Food Trucks at Lumen
Visitors exploring the installations can stop at the food truck hub near the Visitor Information Centre.
The 2026 lineup includes Dosa on Wheels, Fo’Cheezy, Hissing Goose Coffee Roasters, Los Rolling Tacos, Mega Cone Creamery, Pabla’s Street Food of India, Siggi’s, The Serial Griller, The Wild Boar, and Wing Monster & Poutinerie.
Water bottle refill stations will also be available inside Waterloo City Hall, so visitors are encouraged to bring a reusable bottle.
Planning Your Visit to Lumen 2026
Lumen covers a sizeable portion of Uptown Waterloo, and there is no single required starting point. Installations extend from the Silver Lake area through downtown to Waterloo City Hall, so comfortable walking shoes are recommended. Festival maps and information will be available to help visitors plan a route.
Walking, cycling, rolling and Grand River Transit are encouraged. Parking is available in nearby Uptown lots, but there will be no event parking at the Waterloo Public Library main branch or the Visitor Information Centre.
An ASL interpreter will be stationed at the Visitor Information Centre, and information booths, first aid and security services will be available throughout the festival area. Public washrooms can be found at locations including City Hall, the Waterloo Public Library, Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery and Waterloo Park East.
The festival is weather dependent. Visitors should check the City of Waterloo or Create Waterloo channels before heading out if rain or severe weather is forecast.
The best part of the festival? It is free to attend!
Trip Planning: Lumen
What:
Lumen is an annual, free, all-ages festival that is open to the public and run by the City of Waterloo’s Arts and Creative Industries team (Create Waterloo). The event features the work of artists as they explore the interplay of light, art, and technology in installations located throughout uptown Waterloo.
When: Saturday, September 19, 2026 | 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.
Where: 75 King St South, Waterloo
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