Montreal hosts first edition of Festilumi light trail adventure

Festilumi is located in the heart of Marché Central in Montreal. It’s a 1.5-kilometre walking experience, with millions of lights.

An immersive journey with an imaginary trip around the world, and there’s even a chilling Halloween with horror movie soundtracks, to get you into the October spirit.

“We’ve been setting up for two months,” said Normand Latourelle, the creator and artistic director of Festilumi. “You’re talking over 15,000 pieces, different sculptures and lights, and it’s 20 million LED lights altogether, so the biggest sound and light show in the world, believe it or not.”

“It’s actually, it is the first time we do Festilumi in Montreal, and we’re very lucky to find this huge space in the middle of the city,” added Latourelle.

Latourelle says they received more than 15,000 visitors last weekend, with over 20,000 tickets sold already, a testament to the location that’s been attracting such large crowds.

With Halloween as the predominant theme, visitors can feast their eyes on the many installations found a various parts of the site.

“We have a huge plaza, where you have a lot of Halloween stuff, like a pumpkin tunnel, that is the home for a thousand lit pumpkins,” said Latourelle.

One Montrealer said, “All of the kids are all wearing costumes and everything and it’s so cute. It reminds me of when my kids were young.”

Another saying, “Halloween because it’s like a big event, you can see different stuff, you can see pumpkins, different things, and also you have a lot of skeletons so it’s too nice!”

All of the themes center around a vital focal point, that’s even attracted locals living nearby.

“It’s the tallest light tree in the world,” said Latourelle. “It’s 47 metres, there’s nothing higher than that.”

Coined as the ultimate family adventure, there’s something for everyone — old and young — as the journey takes everyone through various themes, ranging from a magical dinosaur world with moving animatronics to the Land of Frost with thousands of white lights.

“For the public, you’re coming through 13 different universes. Every universe has its own personality, and it’s like a dream come true,” said Latourelle.

One Montrealer said, “It’s amazing, the first part with all the horses and everything, it’s just perfect for all the kids.”

Another saying, “I’m here for the kids and they are I don’t know where, but somewhere in the lights.”

While another Festilumi goer said, “We just arrived, and my daughter loves unicorns, as you can see and she loved the section about unicorns.”

Festilumi officially opened to the public last weekend and will stay open until December, with a new theme.

“We have two major teams, now it’s the Halloween team, and then we go to the Holiday team. Holiday team will start in November, all the way through Christmas, so we transform a lot of the display, adapted to the Holiday team after November,” said Latourelle.