February is one of Copenhagen’s quietest months, a perfect time to experience the city’s winter light. The holiday season is long gone. The weather is cold, and daylight is limited. For many visitors, winter can feel like an in-between season: not ideal for sightseeing, but not quite empty either. Copenhagen Light Festival gives winter a purpose.
In 2026, the festival brings light installations, performances, and events to streets, canals, parks, and buildings across Copenhagen. Rather than concentrating everything in one area, the festival spreads out across neighborhoods, encouraging movement through the city and offering multiple ways to engage with Copenhagen after dark.
What Copenhagen Light Festival Is
Copenhagen Light Festival is a city-wide event built around light as an artistic and social tool. Artists use light to highlight architecture, public spaces, and urban environments thatpeople already move through in daily life. Some installations are visual, others interactive,but all are placed in public or semi-public spaces.
You can experience much of the festival freely while walking through the city. In addition,a number of concerts, performances, and guided experiences take place indoors or onthe water and require tickets. This combination makes the festival flexible: you canencounter it spontaneously or plan specific events around it.
The overall focus is not spectacle, but accessibility. The festival fits into the city’s winterrhythm rather than interrupting it.
Seeing Copenhagen After Dark
Copenhagen is often explored during the day, when cafés are open, bicycles fill thestreets, and activity is easy to read. During Copenhagen Light Festival, the city shifts toward an evening experience.
Light installations draw attention to building facades, bridges, canals, and smaller urbanspaces that are often overlooked. Familiar routes feel different when light changes howyou perceive distance and structure. Streets become places to pause rather than justpass through.
For many visitors, this offers a practical way to explore the city outside traditionalsightseeing hours. For locals, it provides a reason to go outside on winter evenings whenthe tendency might otherwise be to stay in.
Light Through Music and Performance
In addition to the outdoor installations, Copenhagen Light Festival 2026 also includes a small number of concerts and performances where light, sound, and movement come together in more controlled settings.
One of the central concert experiences during the festival happens at Marble Church (Marmorkirken), where choral music and light design are paired in a setting that already carries a strong sense of space and acoustics. During the festival, the church is used as a backdrop for concerts that explore different forms of light — from daylight and moonlight to the Northern Lights and more abstract, spiritual interpretations.
The performances use carefully designed lighting to emphasize the church’s architecture and to shape how listeners experience the music. Rather than overwhelming the space, the light works with the building’s structure, drawing attention to height, symmetry, and atmosphere. Together with the music, this creates a focused and immersive concert experience that feels distinct from both traditional church concerts and outdoor installations.
Alongside the concerts in the Marble Church, the festival also includes a limited number of performances where light interacts with movement and sound in other parts of the city. These events add another layer to the festival, offering structured cultural experiences for those who want to complement outdoor walks with indoor performances.
Official Guided Canal Tour: The Festival from the Water
During Copenhagen Light Festival, you can experience selected light installations from the canals on an official guided canal tour. Seeing the festival from the water offers a different perspective, as reflections, waterfront architecture, and open harbor spaces play a central role in how you perceive the installations.
A guide on board shares the stories behind the works as the boat moves through the city. This adds context and helps connect the installations to their surroundings. Departures leave from Nyhavn and Ved Stranden, using either classic canal boats or the electric boat “Hygge.”
The pace stays calm, making the canal tour a comfortable alternative to walking, especially on colder evenings.
Light Run 2026: Becoming Part of the Festival
One of the most active ways to engage with Copenhagen Light Festival is Light Run 2026, which takes place on February 8. The run goes through the oldest part of Copenhagen and allows participants to move directly through illuminated areas of the city.
There are two distances: a 3.4 km Family Run starting at 5:00 PM and a 6.8 km run starting at 6:00 PM. All participants receive a light chain before the start and are encouraged to add additional light to their outfits, turning themselves into moving parts of the festival.
The focus is not competition, but participation and visibility. The most creative light costume will win a hotel stay and additional prizes.Light Run also supports two causes. Five percent of every ticket goes to Make-A-Wish Danmark, supporting their work with children facing life-threatening illnesses. The event collaborates with Copenhagen Front Runners, part of Pan Idræt, emphasizing inclusivity and community participation.
This combination of movement, creativity, and social responsibility reflects the broader values behind Copenhagen Light Festival.
Winter Conditions and How to Approach the Festival
Copenhagen Light Festival takes place in full winter conditions. Cold temperatures, wind, and darkness are part of the experience. Warm clothing, comfortable shoes, and flexible expectations are essential.
Most people won’t try to see everything in one evening. Instead, you experience the festival gradually, over several walks or outings. Indoor performances, canal tours, and events like Light Run fit naturally into this slower approach.
Why Copenhagen Light Festival Matters
The festival adds activity to a season that can otherwise feel static. It activates public spaces, supports artists, and encourages people to use the city differently during winter.
Rather than focusing on spectacle, Copenhagen Light Festival emphasizes accessibility, structure, and participation. It invites people to move through the city, engage with their surroundings, and experience Copenhagen outside the usual seasonal highlights.
A Practical Way to Experience Copenhagen in February
If you are in Copenhagen during February 2026, Copenhagen Light Festival offers an easy and flexible way to experience the city. Whether you choose a walk through illuminated streets, a concert, a canal tour, or participation in Light Run, the festival allows you to engage with Copenhagen without pressure or rigid schedules.
It presents the city as it is in winter: calm, functional, and quietly active — with light as a tool for exploration rather than an attraction in itself.
Written by Therese
