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City-wide light art festival themed "City Light", with installations along the Bund, Expo waterfront and Suzhou Creek.
The festival runs on a "one main venue, many points" model, with the main site at the Bund and its inland blocks in Huangpu District plus the Expo riverside area, and 15 sub-venues elsewhere in Shanghai. The published timeline gives two sets of dates without reconciling them: the festival is described as planned for 17 September to 16 October 2026, while the timeline lists the core exhibition period at the main venue as 17 September to 7 October 2026. The notice adds that the run may be extended to Spring Festival, or works kept permanently, at the organising committee office's request. A results conference and awards ceremony is indicated for mid-October.
The call has two units. The main unit, "Whispers of Light on Suhe", covers the waterfront of the Jing'an stretch of Suzhou Creek, focusing on the area between Henan Road Bridge and Waibaidu Bridge; twelve candidate sites are marked on the accompanying map, of which six to eight will finally be built, and artists may also propose sites of their own outside that set. The second unit, "Bund Narrative", covers the area east of Henan Road, north of Yan'an East Road, south of Suzhou Creek and west of the Huangpu River, concentrating on the Bund viewing platform and the "second façade" streets behind it. Entrants may apply to one or both units, and to one or more sites within a unit, submitting a separate proposal for each.
This is the part foreign readers will most want, and it is the part the notice does not address. No admission arrangements for the public have been published: no ticket prices, no statement of whether the installations are ticketed or free, no public open day, and no on-sale date. Whether visitors need to register, whether real-name registration applies, and whether a WeChat account or a Chinese mobile number is required to book anything are all unpublished. There is likewise nothing on whether overseas visitors can buy tickets or register, if tickets exist at all. Treat all of this as not yet announced rather than as free entry.
Participation in the call itself is explicitly open worldwide, to artists, designers, architects, lighting designers, cross-disciplinary teams and creative organisations. Neither submission route requires a Chinese messaging account: proposals may be emailed to shilf@lhsr.sh.gov.cn, or submitted from 6 May 2026 through the MANA global new media art platform at https://manamana.net/match/SHILF2026/home. The notice states both routes are equally valid. Results, however, are to be announced through the WeChat accounts "Green Shanghai" and "Shanghai International Light Festival", and the festival's Douyin and Xiaohongshu accounts. Enquiries: +86-21-52567417 or +86-16628583359, contacts Jin Lu and Yuan Qiao.
Emailed submissions must use the subject line "2026上海国际光影节光影艺术装置征集+name/team name+work title", with all materials in Word or PDF format gathered in a single folder named identically to the subject line, plus working contact details. Required materials are an application form covering team information, contact details, chosen unit and site; a concept proposal comprising a creative statement of roughly 500 words in Chinese and 500 in English, visual material including renderings, diagrams or storyboards showing both day and night effects, a technical brief covering dimensions, materials, method of realisation, estimated energy use, interaction logic and safety and installation planning, and a stated site preference with a preliminary site-suitability analysis; an itemised preliminary budget covering design, fabrication, transport, installation, insurance and maintenance; and CVs and a portfolio for core team members. A commercial brand partnership may optionally be declared. Site condition documents and the application form are distributed via a Baidu Pan link, https://pan.baidu.com/s/1jxdU7E-F3Ud9rP3z-s0z1A, with extraction code 1tc9.
After the 25 June 2026 deadline, review and announcement of results are scheduled for July 2026, detailed design and fabrication for July to September 2026, and on-site installation and commissioning for September 2026. Judging is weighted: artistry and innovation 30%, fit with the theme and the site 25%, technical feasibility, safety and sustainability 20%, public appeal and experience 15%, and budget reasonableness 10%. The process runs from an eligibility screening to expert review to public notice of results. The notice as published dates the opening of the call to 24 April 2025, which does not sit easily with the rest of its timeline; entrants should confirm with the organisers rather than read anything into it.
Shortlisted and winning entries are to be published on official channels and on the websites of relevant international organisations, and all shortlisted entries receive a certificate of honour. Proposals selected for realisation in either unit receive dedicated implementation funding drawn from the festival's annual budget, along with administrative, site and technical coordination support. Shortlisted proposals that are not built compete for prizes: one first prize of RMB 30,000, two second prizes of RMB 20,000 and three third prizes of RMB 10,000, all before tax. Selected work is folded into the festival's official promotion and key visuals, promoted through its media platforms and international partner network, and recommended to partner city light festivals abroad; winners' representatives are to be invited to the results conference in mid-October.
On rights, entrants retain the intellectual property in their submitted proposals. Once selected, the organisers hold a royalty-free right to use the work for this edition of the festival and its associated promotion, and artists are permanently credited in the official catalogue, media material and academic records. Ownership of the physical installation and its subsequent disposal are to be settled in the cooperation agreement. One caveat on the source: this text was republished by a competition-listings site that states it carries third-party notices without guaranteeing their accuracy or completeness, so anything time-sensitive is worth confirming with the organising committee directly.
This entry was compiled automatically from the organiser's own page and every date in it was checked back against that page before publishing. Nobody from our team has been to this one, and we have not called the organisers — where they have not published something, this page says so rather than filling the gap.
Status: 正文自相矛盾：开篇称光影节'拟'于2026年9月17日至10月16日举办，而时间线中'正式展期'为2026年9月17日-10月7日（主会场核心展期）；此处 end 取全节期10月16日，实际闭幕日存疑。'拟'字表明举办期尚未最终确认。正文明确'延长展期：根据组委会办公室要求将延长至春节或永久保留'——延长与否待定。15个分会场的具体地点正文未列出。正文全篇为面向艺术家的作品征集公告，未提及任何观众购票、预约或入场方式，故 access 填 tbc；'苏河光语'征集截止2026年6月25日、评审结果2026年7月，均已过期，与游客无关。region 沿用上海直辖市。 Source: the organiser's own page, fetched and verified on 2026-08-23 (https://www.shejijingsai.com/2026/04/1533785.html) · checked 2026-08-23