“The Enlightenment” - a sustainable theme for this year's Lights in Alingsås festival

The theme of the Lights in Alingsås festival 2016, is “The Enlightenment”. In October, we choose to shine a light on the world's most important questions.

    - The year we started working towards winning an environmental diploma for the festival, a process which is already under way. Then we thought we'd work with sustainability and decided to make it the theme of this year's festival, says Angelica Larsson, Event Manager, Lights in Alingsås.

This year eight international lighting designers have been asked to create installations highlighting the UN's objective - sustainable development. Their creations will be placed along the light trail which will run through the town of Alingsås in Sweden.

     - We like the theme of our festival to have a link to important trends and issues , and sustainability really is in the news at the moment. We want to show how it's possible to have a fun experience when you see our light installations, while at the same time you are given a lot to think about, says Margaretha Stenmark, Workshop Manager, Lights in Alingsås.

Global goals

World leaders have committed themselves to 17 sustainable development goals in order to achieve three amazing things over the next fifteen years: the eradication of extreme poverty, the reduction of inequality and injustice in the world, and a solution to the climate crisis. But if they are to be achieved, people must know about them.

     - I hope that this year's theme, both for the light festival and Alingsås municipality, will mean a step forward when it comes to the environment and sustainability issues.Municipal employees, Alingsås residents and many festival visitors will receive increased insight into different global and local sustainability issues. In the long run these insights can hopefully lead to concrete action which will make Alingsås, Sweden and the world more sustainable, says Fredrik Bergman, Environmental Strategist at Alingsås municipality.

In an intensive week before Lights in Alingsås opens to the public, the light trail is created by the year's eight international lighting designers, working with more than sixty students from all corners of the world. During the week the students will also have the chance to attend a lecture on sustainability and the environment with extra focus on global sustainability. The speakers will be Fredrik Bergman and Fredrik Wizemann (Sustainability Controllers at Alingsås Energy and responsible for ensuring that the festival receives its environmental diploma).

The result of seven days of hard work is presented in the form of lighting installations around Alingsås. It is when the international lighting workshop comes to an end that the main event can start, and the public can enjoy the installations.

Lights in Alingsås festival runs from 30 September to 6 November, 2016.

More about the UN's 17 sustainable development goals

At the UN summit on 25 September 2015, the world's heads of state and governments adopted 17 sustainable global development goals for the period 2016 to 2030. To achieve the goals major changes are necessary, something which affectscommunication at all levelsThere needs to be discussion at global and national levels, in both political and in public forums, and in organizations and companies. Read more about the goals and the work behind them here: http://www.fn.se/fn-info/vad-gor-fn/utveckling/agenda2030/.

More about Lights in Alingsås: lightsinalingsas.se

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Contact:
Margaretha Stenmark, Workshop Manager
Tel: +46 (0)322 61 76 78
margaretha.s@alingsasenergi.se

Angelica Larsson, Event Coordinator
Tel: +46 (0)70 780 08 54
Angelica.Larsson@estradalingsas.se