Rigi Light Festival 2026

Light on Mount Rigi

I usually know Mount Rigi as a place of open views. Panoramas, clear lines on the horizon, sunsets above Lake Lucerne. At the Rigi Light Festival 2026, the perception was different. The mountain was less a viewpoint and more a space for light, projection and movement.

Around Rigi Kaltbad, the installations changed familiar places. Rock walls, chalets, the chapel and snow-covered paths became surfaces for images. The light did not simply cover the surroundings. It traced edges, shifted forms and made individual structures visible.

Rock, snow and projection

Photographically, the contrast was the strongest element. On one side, the quiet winter landscape of the mountain. On the other, coloured projections, moving patterns and clear lines of light. Around the village square in particular, architecture, snow and artificial light came together in a dense composition.

The projections changed the façades of the chalets and the surface of the rock chapel. Lines were dissolved, surfaces were rearranged. Depending on the viewpoint, the scenes became either calm compositions or direct, graphic images.

My walk through the festival

The route led through several installations, past the illuminated LILU letters and further towards Rigi First. This also created a connection to the Lucerne Light Festival, but in a very different setting.

On Mount Rigi, light works differently than in the city. Snow reflects the colours, while dark fir trees absorb them again. The cold remains present, but the projections create a close visual connection to the subjects. One of the strongest scenes for me was a line of pink light running up the slope through the dark forest.

The gallery

The images in this story show only a selection. During this night, I photographed further installations, lines of light, details and paths between Rigi Kaltbad and Kulm.

View the Rigi Light Festival 2026 gallery

What to expect on site

The festival area is mainly located around Rigi Kaltbad and partly extends towards Rigi First. The route is prepared and easy to walk. Still, it remains a winter evening on the mountain. Warm clothing, solid shoes and enough time for the individual stations are useful.

• The contrast: Quiet mountain landscape, snow and dark fir trees meet coloured light installations and projections.
• The route: The walk leads past illuminated rock walls, the rock chapel, chalets and open areas.
• The effect: Many installations work with the existing surroundings. Wood, snow, rock and forest remain visible and are read differently through the light.

Camera settings for night photography

For the night images, I worked with a wide aperture, mostly between f/2 and f/4. This allowed enough light to reach the sensor without making the exposure time unnecessarily long. Since some projections were moving, very long exposures were not always useful.

The ISO was usually around ISO 800 to 1000, depending on the scene. More important than keeping the ISO as low as possible was preserving the structure of the projections. With moving light, patterns can quickly blur or bright areas can burn out.

A tripod helps with composition and with calmer scenes. For moving projections, however, the exposure time still needs to be short enough. For focusing, I used bright, high-contrast edges and then continued manually, so the autofocus would not start searching again in the dark.

White balance also matters. With changing LED colours, automatic white balance can react strongly. A fixed value gives the series a calmer base and keeps the colour mood more controlled.

Note

This article is not a paid collaboration. It is based on my personal experience as a photographer and on the images created on Mount Rigi that evening.

Image selection for this story

More photographs from this series are available in the complete gallery.

View the complete gallery