In our charming hometown of Baltimore premiered the first large-scale international light festival in the United States, Light City Baltimore. The festival lasted one week from March 28-April 3, 2016 and celebrated “ideas, ingenuity and creativity through art, music and innovation.” Conferences on Social Innovation, Sustainability Innovation, Health Innovation, and Creative Innovation took place during the days and downtown Baltimore lit up at night with lights, performances, and live music. Why Baltimore and why now? According to lightcity.org, “In 1816, Baltimore was the first American city to illuminate its streets with gas lanterns, revolutionizing the urban landscape forever by transforming the city with light. 200 years later, Light City Baltimore will paint Baltimore with light, and illuminate the world with ideas from the brightest thinkers.” Almost a year after our city was lit up with fires during the riots over Freddie Gray’s death, we are taking back our city and lighting it up with positive energy as we heal and grow together. That’s something we are very proud to be a part of, and want to share our experience at Light City with you.
Light City sounded pretty amazing to us, so we made sure to check it out two different nights, first without the kids and then as a family with our energetic 2 and 4 year olds. Both nights were great so we’ll be sure to highlight some of our favorite spots as a family and also while out with friends for those interested in an adults only experience. In hindsight, I wish we had planned to attend several more nights because it offered so much that it was impossible to see and do everything in just 2 nights. The map below shows the 55 different attractions spread out all over Baltimore, but concentrated mainly in the Inner Harbor.
The adults-only night out with friends began with a few free cocktails and appetizers at the Fleet Street Kitchen, one of Baltimore’s best restaurants, as a guest of the QG’s Wit, Grit, and Glamour trunk show. Feeling warm and fuzzy, we made our way past one of several stages with live music and headed to Harbor East’s Wit and Wisdom, the official bar of Light CIty. We opted for another round of drinks, this time not complimentary and rather expensive. We enjoyed waterside views of the lit up harbor from their outdoor terrace and watched Water Wall, a series of animated images projected onto an interactive water screen.
From there we meandered across some light structures including this giant chandelier that was powered by the bicycles, so required crowd interaction to light up. Our friend was happy to oblige and hopped on to power it up.
We made our way past a 20″ tall animatronic lit up peacock and the Circus of Wonders featuring carnival, burlesque, and aerial artists.
We wandered upon Voyage, a collection of 300 “paper boats” with rainbow colored lights that were manipulated by the crowd. This was one of my favorite spots because it looked magical and romantic and provided great photo opportunities.
We walked past Lightwave: Baltimore’s Beacon, which was a projection of light and sounds on the historic Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse.
The Gateway/Baltimore animated neon geometric modules reflected a beautiful rainbow off the water. It was “dedicated to all citizens of Baltimore, coming together with a dense complexity of color, diversity of culture, and respectful unity.” Love the sound of that!
Rainbows were also reflected off the water along the Pixel Promenade, a colorful LED canopy that interacted with festival-goers through motion sensitivity. On our family night, our son had fun sitting on Daddy’s shoulders making his way under the lights.
We enjoyed some fun photo opportunities at the Plaza with the collection of illuminated structures inspired by carnival rides, theater marquees, and the Las Vegas Strip. We also had fun snapping pictures at the Blue Hour, an interactive light installation that responded to activity around it. It was named after the blue hour of the morning and evening, when the indirect light is blue, and first/last reds and yellows of the sun are visible. We had a Charlie’s Angels moment in front of the lights.
We also saw the Laser Lotus, an interactive sculpture that uses planes of laser light to create a volumetric lotus on the water, floating in the harbor in front of the Hard Rock Cafe.
Another highlight for our kid-free night was Club Light City where we saw a free performance by DJ Jazzy Jeff, who is known for his collaborations with Will Smith and had us singing and dancing like maniacs to his crowd-pleasing beats. He was mixing everything from Michael Jackson to Missy Elliott and was on fire! 
After dancing our butts off, we made our way to the LED Ferris wheel, but unfortunately the ride was not operating when we made our way to that end. We had some killer views of the harbor with the lights shining everywhere.
We also saw Lumen, an illuminated 100′ fluorescent mural wall that allowed users to draw with light across the Baltimore city landscape.
This beautiful- Take To Ro- Bridge of Lights – highlighted traditional Japanese bamboo lanterns and was illuminated from within using LED lights.
That was a wrap for the fantastic adults-only night out with friends complete with cocktails, fine eats, and club-worthy dance music. Next on to our family night with our energetic toddler and curious preschooler in tow. It left like a very different festival with kid-friendly attractions as our priority, yet both nights were highly entertaining and enjoyable.
We got there early and enjoyed walking around the harbor taking in the sights with the kids strapped into the double stroller (as long as they would tolerate being confined).
We made our way to Mini Light City at Pierce’s Park for the kids to play at the Homophone sound garden. Our kids were begging us for the cotton-candy served on LED sticks, but we knew better than to give them that much sugar so close to bedtime. 
Next we made our way to the giant peacock and let them get their groove on to the music in front of the crowd.
They also enjoyed playing in the Plaza sculpture garden and were fascinated by the colored light bulbs and kept trying to touch them.
Next we headed up to the Baltimore World Trade Center’s observation deck for a diaper change, and while up there enjoyed some fantastic views of Light City from above. Fun fact: it is the world’s tallest regular pentagonal building.
Our favorite spot for our family night was The Pool, colorful concentric circles that responded to the movements of the crowd. Our kids had a blast hopping around on the circles as they changed color underneath their feet.
Another highlight was UP, where 150 festival-goers participated in a choreographed dance with LED umbrellas, filmed from overhead.
Blue Hour was also a huge hit with the kids who were trying to climb it and were fascinated with its glow from within and the changing colors.
The kids were very curious about this glowing angel on stilts who secretly honked a horn whenever she gave kids a high-five, which made our daughter giggle every time.
We also enjoyed some gorgeous views of the Pride of Baltimore II, a reconstruction of an early 19th century Baltimore Clipper. Free daytime tours were available during the festival but we didn’t make it out until the evening so missed out on that. The historic USS Constellation also looked magnificent at night with lights 
To conclude, we had a blast at Light City 2016 seeing our beautiful harbor shining bright with lights, music, and creativity. We already can’t wait to go back next year and plan to attend more nights since there’s so much to see and do for free! There are tons of things to keep children and adults of all ages entertained. It is a perfect family event, fun outing with friends, or would be great for a romantic date night. Who else went to the first ever Light City Baltimore? What was your favorite exhibit? If you liked this post and want to get our tips to travel like a millionaire, please sign up for our email newsletter and RSS feed. For another family-friendly activity in Baltimore, check out our post on the B&O Railroad Museum, which is fun for adults and kids alike. Read this post for ideas on where to stay in Baltimore to be close to the top tourist destinations.
