Amsterdam Canals host Light Festival from 26 November

Amsterdam Canals (Amsterdamse grachten) will host the fifteenth Amsterdam Light Festival from 26 November 2026 to 17 January 2027, bringing a new light-art route to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The organiser says Edition 15 will place 20 artworks in, above and alongside the waterways, with works visible from land and from the water.

Amsterdam Light Festival opens on 26 November

Edition 15 begins on Thursday 26 November 2026 and runs until Sunday 17 January 2027. The Amsterdam Light Festival Foundation is organising the programme as an independent non-profit foundation, and the organiser describes the canals as the backdrop for the light artworks.

The festival page says the new edition will include a brand new route and side programming along it. It does not yet publish the full route or the names of all participating artists. The Edition 15 programme confirms the dates, the canal setting and the organiser.

Light art meets Amsterdam's seventeenth-century canal ring

The festival's setting is part of the Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Amsterdam inside the Singelgracht, which UNESCO lists as a World Heritage site. The historic urban ensemble was planned at the end of the sixteenth century and built during the seventeenth century as a new port city.

Its layout uses canals in concentric arcs around the old town, with streets, gabled houses and numerous monuments forming a connected urban ensemble. That structure gives the 2026 festival a specific relationship with its venue: the artworks are not placed in a separate exhibition hall but along and above waterways that UNESCO describes as the surviving basis of the district's urban plan. The UNESCO canal district record documents the site's history and World Heritage status.

What Edition 15 means for the canal route

The organiser says visitors will be able to experience the works from a canal boat or on foot. The route will therefore connect the festival with both the water-facing and street-facing sides of the district, while the new route remains separate from the historic canal plan itself.

Light art is freely accessible, according to the festival foundation. Walk and cruise experiences are also planned, but the organiser has not published the complete route details on the Edition 15 page. Programme information is being added ahead of the opening on 26 November 2026.

Visiting Amsterdam Canals: what travellers from Western Europe should know

• Amsterdam Light Festival takes place from 26 November 2026 to 17 January 2027 along Amsterdam's canals, with Edition 15 organised by the Amsterdam Light Festival Foundation.
• The artworks are accessible from land and water, so visitors can follow the route on foot or view it from a canal boat during the festival period.
• The canal district lies within central Amsterdam around the Singelgracht and forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage property inscribed as a seventeenth-century canal ring.

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Frequently asked questions about Amsterdam Canals

When does Amsterdam Light Festival take place at Amsterdam Canals?

Edition 15 runs from 26 November 2026 to 17 January 2027. The Amsterdam Light Festival Foundation is organising the programme.

What is Amsterdam Canals?

They are the waterways and historic urban ensemble of Amsterdam's central canal district, planned at the end of the sixteenth century and built during the seventeenth century.

Where are Amsterdam Canals and how do you get there?

The canal district is in central Amsterdam around the Singelgracht. The festival can be experienced from the streets and from the waterways.