The past few years Bjorn went to Glow in Eindhoven, and after a super funny edition last year (where even the fire alarm from our first hotel went off), we decided to hang out once more and explore the art of lights for their 20th edition. and however it seemed a good idea and some of the works were breathtaking, it did leave us a not so sweet taste.
The City of Lights and issues?
Eindhoven has a special place dor me , from going there for Abunai, to Dynamic con and ofcourse the light festival. After traveling both to Eindhoven and dropping of our luggage, we decided to chill a bit at the indoor mall where they have a fountain. Unfortunately there was a drunk person who decided to throw water on us for no reason. Now thinking about this moment again… this could have been a sign that this edition wouldn’t be that great.
The Plan
Look Glow has a place in my heart, so while getting ready we decided to play it safe and split the map into 2 days. And I got to say, that was the best idea, because however the works look amazing on social media, I can tell you that 90 percent of the time you’re standing in a packed crowd. Like to the extend you get pushed to the point you simply want it to end.
If I look at the past editions, there was more mass control… too crowded ? Let’s place some dancers at this point and let them do a dance so the queue gets smaller…. Now it was more a free for all. It was so crowded Bjorn didn’t even dare to grab his camera out of his bag simply because pickpocketing would be way to easy with these circumstances.
The thing that really annoyed us the fact how messy everything felt, it was mind blowing that even pro palestina people were even able to get in the route and place their so called “art”, and once they had to leave fromthe organisation you would see them again a bit further. it did feel like a cat and mouse game and truth be told ? it’s a true shame that such a good event with the focus of showing art and enjoyment is being used for political gain.
Art should bring people together and not divide them into groups of pro or contra.
In my opinion the organisation failed drastically in this part for not only this year, but also last year. You think people will learn from their mistakes but I think Glow really forgot the lesson in the whole thing.
Our conclusion
Overall the light works were really good and despite we did enjoy the city of Eindhoven for a pretty long time, it does feel like this is the right time to not go to this anymore. I truly hope they’ll fix what needs to be fixed so we can someday say “let’s go to Eindhoven again”…. but for now, it was nice to see you.
Many hugs from your favorite LDR couple
Bjorn and Fleur