Amsterdam Light Festival
About this experience
The Amsterdam Light Festival turns fifteen this winter. From 26 November 2026 to 17 January 2027, for fifty three evenings, light artworks by local and international artists hang above the bridges, float on the water and glow from the quays of the canal ring, around twenty of them along a completely new route, free to see from the street and designed to be seen from a boat. The city has been practising for this for a century. In October 1929 the Edison Light Week lit up buildings, a Fokker aeroplane and a parade of boats on the canals, the first light event ever staged in the Netherlands. The festival itself began as a Christmas boat parade in 2009, until a light designer suggested commissioning art instead of decorating boats, and Ai Weiwei later stretched a single red laser 6.5 kilometres along the canals to ask who decides where boundaries fall. This experience pairs the festival with one of the two exhibitions of the season a few streets from the water, and ends on a private boat as the lamps come on, with a choice of two evenings.
Edison Light Week, Amsterdam, 1929
Amsterdam Light Festival, fifteenth edition
The afternoon, one exhibition, chosen at booking
Meet the Storykeeper in the hotel lobby in the early afternoon and walk or take a tram to Museumplein, while there is still daylight.
Kusama at the Stedelijk. The final stop of the Yayoi Kusama retrospective, seven decades of dots, nets and mirrored infinities with a newly created Infinity Mirror Room, now her farewell after her death in August 2026. The Storykeeper follows the five bodies of work that explain her, and leaves the mirror room for last, seen alone, a first taste of light as art before the canals.
De Kooning at the Rijksmuseum. Willem de Kooning at Work, more than 120 works by the Rotterdam stowaway who helped invent abstract expressionism in New York, with Woman I hung in the Gallery of Honour a few steps from the Night Watch. Rembrandt painted light for a living, and seeing his work hours before the festival changes how the evening is looked at.
Infinity Mirror Room, Phalli's Field, 1965
Rijksmuseum
As the lamps come on, the boat is waiting at the quay behind the Rijksmuseum. Board a historic saloon boat, glass, brass and varnished wood, with a heated cabin, and set off into the festival route. The Storykeeper stays on board and, under each artwork, tells who made it and why.
The evening, option A, the Light Festival with Dutch bites and drinks
Two hours on the water through the festival route, with a signature menu of Dutch bites created for the evening, bitterballen, aged farmhouse cheeses, oysters from Zeeland and traditional herring, served with champagne, Dutch wine and craft beers or a glass of jenever from a distillery in the Jordaan. A relaxed evening, well suited to families, to a first night in the city, or to travellers with a dinner reservation afterwards.
The evening, option B, dinner on the water served by three chefs
The evening the team looks forward to designing all year. The boat leaves as the lights come on and moves slowly through the route over the following hours, pausing under the artworks. Dinner is served on board by three chefs from among the best kitchens in the city, each responsible for part of the meal, so the courses change hands as the canals change. One sets the tone, another takes over as the boat turns onto the Herengracht, a third closes the evening. Wine is chosen to follow them. It works for a couple, for a family wanting a Christmas evening without a restaurant booking, and for a small group of friends or colleagues who would rather spend December on the water than in a private dining room. The boat is theirs for the night.
Dinner on the water, Amsterdam Light Festival
The boat returns to a landing near the hotel at the end of the evening.
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Inclusions
Tour Disclaimers: Please be aware that even after your booking is confirmed, your itinerary may be subject to changes based on availability and to ensure we deliver the best possible experience to our clients.