Amsterdam Light Festival Bike Tour

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Amsterdam’s historic canals transform into a big artwork of lights between the 1st of December 2016 and the 22nd of January 2017. For the 5th year in a row, the city will host the Amsterdam Light Festival. Artists, architects and designers from all over the world will produce artworks and installations that shed a special light on Amsterdam’s historical heritage. This year you can experience the festival by bicycle for the first time on this special tour designed specifically for the Amsterdam Light Festival.

This tour will take you down the ‘Water Colors’ route as well as parts of the ‘Illuminade’ route of the Amsterdam Light Festival. The starting point of the tour is at Dam Square and will take you around the beautiful Herengracht canal, a small section of the Amstel river, past the Central Station and through the Jordaan neighbourhood. The guides speak fluent English and will tell you all about the light artworks and the artists that made them.

All of the light art that is brought to life is especially designed and made for the Amsterdam Light Festival. The organisation has selected 35 different artworks from more than 500 contributors, coming from dozens of countries around the world. Some of the artwork that you will see on the A-Bike Light Festival Tour are: the Bunch of Tulips from the Hungarian civil engineer Peter Koros; the moving Wolfert’s Dog made by Tatiana Titova; and the refined artwork called The Lace by Choi and Shine Architects from New York. Most of the tour will take place on the Herengracht canal, which flows through the most beautiful and historic parts of Amsterdam.

The 2016/2017 Amsterdam Light Festival is extra special because it’s a jubilee year. After the success of the festival’s first year in 2012, this explosion of light is now being held for the 5th time. Last year the festival drew 870,000 followers from all around the world. The organisers set out one route for boats and another for pedestrians. Both routes have their own theme and artwork and this is the first year that the festival can be enjoyed on bike too. This will be a special tour that combines the best of both the boat and walking routes.