# Shanghai International Light Festival 2026: The Technologies Behind the Shows > The 3rd Shanghai International Light Festival runs from 17 September to 16 October 2026, with one main venue in Huangpu, 16 sub-venues and 158 events. Its shows rely on architectural projection mapping, scrim and water-screen projection, naked-eye 3D, a floating light installation, lasers, drones and AI-driven interaction. **Published:** 2026-09-26 - **By:** MLABART ## What is the Shanghai International Light Festival 2026? The festival opened on the evening of 17 September 2026 and runs for a month across the city under its permanent theme, Light of Shanghai. China Daily reports one main venue, in Huangpu district, and 16 sub-venues, hosting 158 themed events. It is also an international showcase. The Shining Shanghai International Light Art Competition drew 156 entries from 149 teams across 41 countries and regions; 20 shortlisted works are on show at the Shenyu Lane complex in MixC World Suhewan from 26 September. Under the MM-ARTech programme, 15 artists from eight groups -- based in cities including London, Singapore, Budapest and Berlin -- made site-specific works for Tank Art Park. An open call drew 174 submissions from 16 countries, and interactive works from France, Croatia and the Netherlands debut at Yanzhong Green Space and along Suzhou Creek. ## Which technologies do the main shows use? Public coverage names few of the studios behind individual works. Where a studio is not named, we do not attribute one. | Venue | Work | Technology, as reported | What visitors see | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Main venue - Shanghai Concert Hall, west façade | 《上海之光，光音的故事》 (Light of Shanghai: A Story of Light and Sound), plus international artists' and themed shows, 18-27 Sep | Architectural projection mapping, with a live water-dance performance | The century-old façade becomes a giant screen | | Main venue - Telecom Building | Immersive interactive projection show | Architectural projection, interactive | A landmark façade that responds to visitors | | Main venue - Yanzhong Green Space | 《光影花路》 (Light Flower Path) | Ground projection onto walkways | Petals bloom underfoot; nothing is visible by day and nothing is fixed to the ground | | Main venue - Yanzhong Green Space | 《棫朴之咏（朴翁）》 | AI light interaction through a "snail" interaction device | Visitors talk in real time with a hackberry tree about 120 years old | | Putuo - TOP Central Park | 《锥光》 (Cone of Light) | Projection and dynamic lighting on a floating structure; music water-screen fountain show | Shanghai's first large-scale floating light installation | | Baoshan - Changtan | IMAX dome water-screen show | Dome and water-screen projection, drones, fireworks | A projected sphere above water, with drone formations | | Lingang - Dishui Lake | Lakeside light zones | Naked-eye 3D, water-screen light show, drones | Depth effects on lakeside façades | | Pudong - Qiantan | Cat IP show; 800 m forest light street | Scrim (gauze) projection; light installations | Figures that appear to float in mid-air | | Changning - Jingyao Hongqiao | 寰宇晶耀 | Building-façade lighting with lasers | Beams drawn across a commercial façade | | Songjiang | Shadow puppetry; 3D building projection | Water-screen projection; architectural projection | Heritage puppetry projected onto water | | Jing'an Park | 《繁星入梦》 | Immersive light-forest show | A walk-through forest of light | - ![Five ways light meets a surface at the Shanghai International Light Festival 2026: façade projection mapping at the Shanghai Concert Hall; ground projection on the Light Flower Path in Yanzhong Green Space; scrim projection at Qiantan in Pudong; water-screen projection at Changtan in Baoshan and in Songjiang; naked-eye 3D around Dishui Lake in Lingang.](https://mlabart.com/insights/shanghai-international-light-festival-2026/five-techniques.svg) -- Five techniques and where they appear, as reported by China Daily and Tencent News. Diagram by MLABART. ## How do the main techniques work? Architectural projection mapping: content is built to the exact geometry of a façade -- windows, columns, cornices -- so light appears to reshape the building. A heritage façade adds a constraint: nothing may be fixed to it, so every projector sits off the building and the content has to be aligned from a distance. Stacking and edge blending: large outdoor façades are usually covered by several projectors rather than one. A city centre is lit by street lamps, shop windows and traffic, so a single projector rarely produces enough brightness. Stacking places several projectors on the same image, pixel-aligned, so their brightness adds up; if one unit fails, the picture stays up at reduced brightness instead of going dark. Edge blending overlaps neighbouring images and fades each edge so that several projectors read as one seamless canvas. Scrim and water-screen projection: a fine gauze or a sheet of water mist catches light while staying almost transparent, so projected figures appear to float in the air. Both depend on the angle between projector and viewer, and water screens also on wind. Ground projection: projecting onto paths instead of building on them leaves no trace in the day -- the reason it suits parks and listed sites. Naked-eye 3D: content is rendered for one intended viewing position and the geometry of the screen, so the eye reads depth without glasses. It works best where the audience's position is predictable. AI interaction: a visitor speaks, the speech is transcribed, a language model generates a reply in a defined persona, and the reply is voiced and paired with a light response -- the pattern behind the "talking tree". - ![Diagram of stacking and edge blending on a building façade: three projector positions each hold a stack of projectors aligned on the same image, so brightness adds up and one failure only dims the picture; neighbouring images overlap in blend zones where each edge fades so the seams disappear; the content is warped to the façade geometry.](https://mlabart.com/insights/shanghai-international-light-festival-2026/stacking-and-blending.svg) -- General principle; real rigs vary in the number of positions and projectors per stack. Diagram by MLABART. ## What can brands borrow from a city light festival? The same techniques translate directly into brand activations: - Façade mapping for a launch -- a building becomes the reveal, and the event photographs itself. - Ground projection at a retail entrance -- traffic-stopping, removable, nothing fixed to a landlord's floor. - A "talking object" -- an AI persona given to a product, mascot or landmark. - Scrim projection in an atrium -- floating product imagery without a physical screen. - Stacked projection for one-shot events -- redundancy matters most when there is no second show. ## Sources The festival works listed here are by the festival's artists and producers, not by MLABART. - [China Daily -- Lights transform city into dazzling canvas (18 Sep 2026)](https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202609/18/WS6aac774be4b06d4aa055eaca.html) - [Tencent News -- 第三届上海国际光影节主会场抢先看](https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20260908A0CFEG00) - [Tencent News -- 第三届上海国际光影节16个分会场特色一览](https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20260917A0CU0600) - [Tencent News -- 百年古树解锁AI对话新体验](https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20260918A0ACEW00) - [Yicai -- 第三届上海国际光影节9月17日开幕，158场主题活动来了](https://www.yicai.com/news/103356195.html) - [Shanghai Municipal Government -- 2026 Shanghai International Light Festival](https://english.shanghai.gov.cn/en-FlagshipEvents-2026ShanghaiSummer/20260710/008ae615bcea4d43a1583d5f56bba8d1.html) ## FAQ ### When is the Shanghai International Light Festival 2026? From 17 September to 16 October 2026. Individual venues run shorter windows; the Shanghai Concert Hall projection show runs 18-27 September. ### Where is the main venue of the Shanghai International Light Festival 2026? Yanzhong Green Space in Huangpu district, including the Shanghai Concert Hall and the Telecom Building. ### What technologies does the Shanghai International Light Festival use? Architectural projection mapping, ground projection, scrim and water-screen projection, naked-eye 3D, a floating light installation, lasers, drones and AI-driven interaction. ## Related Pages **See also:** [Projection Mapping](https://mlabart.com/solutions/projection-mapping/) | [AI Interactive Installations](https://mlabart.com/solutions/ai-interactive-installations/) | [Light Art & Audiovisual Installations](https://mlabart.com/solutions/light-art-installations/) --- **MLABART** -- Interaction - Imagination - Innovation MLABART is a creative technology studio specializing in interactive installations, digital multimedia art, and immersive experiences. We take projects from creative direction to commercial delivery -- building audiovisual interactive installations, anamorphic 3D billboards (naked-eye 3D), kinetic mechanical installations, and AI-driven experiences for brand activations, exhibition spaces, and public environments. - Web: https://mlabart.com - Email: mark@touchworld-sh.com - Phone / WhatsApp: +86 18917292695 - Canonical HTML version: https://mlabart.com/insights/shanghai-international-light-festival-2026/