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World’s Largest Light Art Festival in Riyadh Sees Over 3 Million Spectators

Under the theme Light Years Apart, audiences experienced the festival across three iconic hubs: King Abdulaziz Historical Center, Wadi Hanifah, and JAX District. SPA
Under the theme Light Years Apart, audiences experienced the festival across three iconic hubs: King Abdulaziz Historical Center, Wadi Hanifah, and JAX District. SPA
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World’s Largest Light Art Festival in Riyadh Sees Over 3 Million Spectators

Under the theme Light Years Apart, audiences experienced the festival across three iconic hubs: King Abdulaziz Historical Center, Wadi Hanifah, and JAX District. SPA
Under the theme Light Years Apart, audiences experienced the festival across three iconic hubs: King Abdulaziz Historical Center, Wadi Hanifah, and JAX District. SPA

Noor Riyadh, the world’s largest light art festival and a flagship program of Riyadh Art, concluded its successful fourth edition, welcoming over 3 million spectators and bringing together over 60 artworks by more than 60 artists from 18 countries, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

Under the theme Light Years Apart, audiences experienced the festival across three iconic hubs: King Abdulaziz Historical Center, Wadi Hanifah, and JAX District.

The festival also featured a striking city-scale light installation at Al Faisaliah Tower, transforming Riyadh into a luminous celebration of art and innovation. This year’s festival brought together 18 Saudi and 43 international artists with site-specific and newly commissioned artworks.

Exceptional installations included Chris Levine’s Higher Power, a city-scale laser projection atop Al Faisaliah Tower; Maryam Tariq’s Shifting Perspectives, which explored perceptual ambiguity at Digital City; and Aether by United Visual Artists, a dazzling drone show at King Abdulaziz Historical Center. Another standout work, Rashed AlShashai’s The Fifth Pyramid, symbolized Riyadh’s cultural transformation.

Architect Khalid Al-Hazani, the executive director of Riyadh Art, bid farewell to the festival, saying: “Noor Riyadh 2024 celebrated humanity’s connection to the stars, sparking inspiration and dialogue through the universal language of art. We look forward to continuing Riyadh’s journey of cultural transformation.”
As for Noor Riyadh festival director Nouf Almoneef, he said: “Once again, this year’s festival united local and international artists for a truly world-class festival.”

“I extend my deepest gratitude to the incredible team -- our staff, volunteers, and partners for their exceptional efforts and collaboration, as well as to the millions of spectators whose engagement made this festival unforgettable,” SPA quoted him as saying.

As part of the community engagement program, which attracted over 52,000 participants, Noor Riyadh organized a variety of activities designed to inspire and connect with the community. These included engaging talks, insightful discussions, interactive workshops, creative experiences, family-friendly activities, and guided tours that enriched the festival experience for visitors.

The seamless execution of these activities was made possible by a dedicated team comprising curators, artists, art explainers, tour guides, and installation crews, ensuring every participant enjoyed a memorable experience.

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Engineers Seek to Save 150-year-old Lighthouse from Crumbling into Hudson River

The lighthouse was built in the river 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Manhattan to keep boats from running aground on mud flats. AP
The lighthouse was built in the river 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Manhattan to keep boats from running aground on mud flats. AP
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Engineers Seek to Save 150-year-old Lighthouse from Crumbling into Hudson River

The lighthouse was built in the river 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Manhattan to keep boats from running aground on mud flats. AP
The lighthouse was built in the river 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Manhattan to keep boats from running aground on mud flats. AP

Federal engineers will begin the process of preserving a functioning 150-year-old lighthouse that sits precariously on a mudflat in the middle of the Hudson River in New York, officials announced this week.
US Sen. Chuck Schumer and the Army Corps of Engineers said that $50,000 has been allocated to study how to protect the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse, which began operating in 1874 and was this year placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's list of the country’s 11 most endangered historic places.
Schumer, a New York Democrat, said he believes the development is the next step to securing all the money needed to save the structure, which is only years away from starting to crumble into the river due to ongoing erosion, according to preliminary studies by a historic preservation group.
“This is a landmark, it’s sort of like the Statue of Liberty in a certain sense, of the Hudson River,” Schumer told The Associated Press by phone after announcing the new funding at a riverfront park in Athens, New York, which has a view of the lighthouse. “When people see the lighthouse and learn its history, they learn the history of the country."
The Corps of Engineers will now meet with the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse Preservation Society, which owns the building and maintains it as a museum, and agree on a plan to fix the property, Schumer said.
He said the millions of dollars needed to ultimately rebuild the small island and preserve it are “virtually certain” because it has been listed as a top priority for preservation.
The lighthouse was built in the river 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Manhattan to keep boats from running aground on mud flats between Athens, on the west side of the Hudson River, and the city of Hudson, on the east side. The lighthouse is still in use, though now with an automated LED beacon.
It sits on roughly 200 wood pilings packed in mud beneath the water. Turbulence from passing commercial ships is washing away that mud and exposing the pilings to river water, accelerating decay.
The society has proposed expanding the foundation the lighthouse is built on so that events can be held there and more visitors can walk on the island at once. It has been raising money to build a ring of corrugated steel designed to shield the structure from river turbulence.