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Symbolically, the Tallinn Light Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2010, continuing to offer art projects in public space during the darkest time of the year. The conception of the Light Festival is not solely centered on light art and design, but also offers possibilities in various fields of culture and for different age groups. The 10th festival will be marked by a selection of artists and works that have participated in the Festival during these 10 years, but they are presented in new situations. The main axis of the spots of events is formed by 11 cultural cauldrons many of which have started to boil  during these 10 years and that have accommodated the festival by chance: Battery Prison, Cultural Factory, Telliskivi Environment for Creative Industries, Polymer, Baltika Quarter, Latin Quarter, Tartu Yeast Factory, Pärnu Museum of Modern Art, Von Krahl  Theater, Rotermanni Quarter.

In addition to acknowledging the spiral belief that all new is old, the anniversary agenda also presents completely new phenomena in the Light Festival specter. For example, designer Leonardo Meigas has put his secret hobby – exploring the Hartmann network – into a tangible form. Another project of his from years ago, a minimalist object “Luminous Brick” made of bricks and light bulbs, can in today’s transition to light-saving bulbs, be seen as a homage to Edison’s light bulb. Kirke Kangro chose instead of a “comeback” to curate 21 students of the Academy of Arts, who hopefully bring new viewpoints to the public space art in Estonia. Raoul Kurvitz is going to make a singer debut within his ritual lecture Darkness Darkness. Also, our good foreign friends are not absent from the Estonian winter, allowing the Light Festival to reuse their spot-specific artworks. The traveling sculptures of Bernard Murigneux (France) are entering the spellbound January in Pärnu, the ritual of old fir tree sculptures reaches the Laekvere village in Virumaa.

Among others, we present: Tuija Järvenpää and Susan Elo (Finland), Katrin Koov, Raul Keller, group of artists Moov ( Portugal), Margus Mekk, Ilvar Piisk, Mihkel Leht, Liisa Kyronseppa (Finland), Sally Studio of Fire, Elo Liiv, Katrin Essenson, with the help of:  students of the Open Academy of the Academy of Arts, students of the Old Town Collegium of Education, fire and ice sculptures etc. Mikk Sarv, Õie Sarv, Ott Sandrak, Jaak Johanson and Kristina Paskevicius tell about keeping the Fire and Light in the Christmas teepee and yurta.

The agenda follows the last year’s pilot of moving the opening of the Festival to Christmas time, thus supporting the developing idea of the Winter Festival introduced bu the town government.

Program starts in the Christmas teepee on the 20th of December and the winter solstice journey on the 21st of December. Light installations can be seen primarily within the period from Dec 29th to Jan 10th, on the 12th and 13th of January the projects in Tartu and Pärnu are opened. Traditional burning of the fire sculptures made from old christmas trees takes place in the Fish Market on 16th and Mustamäe on 17th of January. On the 30th of January the Festival reaches its apogee in Kadriorg with the Fire and Ice Show. This years cold winter also hopefully enables the building of the Snowtown in Tallinn and to greet the year of tiger on Valentine’s Day.