The ten-day event attracted well over 150 000 visitors. The event’s visibility on the web also increased dramatically.
The City of Light, which ended last weekend in Jyväskylä.
According to both traffic counts and counters who were present at the event, the number of visitors was now well over 150 000.
The lightworks attracted a large crowd, especially to the Ylistö area and Kirkkopuisto.
– Light has become a special thing for the people of Jyväskylä. There were clearly three main points in light of the visitor numbers. The Dancing Waters light spectacle in the Ylistö area, the Light Park work in Kirkkopuisto and the Flower Forest flower garden in the Kankaa area, sums up Ruotsalainen.
The Jyväskylä city church alone was visited by more than 25,000 people during the ten-day event.
More than a hundred light works illuminated Jyväskylä for ten days. The number of visitors to the event was not a big surprise for the organizers.
– We have been doing long-term work for almost 20 years. The number of visitors is perhaps just an indication that light and the sense of community brought by this event have become very important to the people of Jyväskylä and our event visitors during this time. Of course, we will also have a significant number of visitors from outside the province, so the event clearly also has a touristic significance, describes Ruotsalainen.
The joy of light is also visible on social media
The number of visitors to the light event may well increase in the future, Ruotsalainen estimates. According to him, there are light events in the world, where the number of visitors in cities the size of Jyväskylä is counted as a few hundred thousand.
– Those who live in the economic district or Jyväskylä very often visit the Valon kaupunki event more than once and visit more than one place, which means that the number of visitors can still increase in proportion to the number of inhabitants.
The Swede has a catchy explanation for the attraction of light.
– Light is like a universal language, it doesn’t exclude anyone, but it’s easy to approach. In this time, community and sharing the joy of being near the light is a very important thing. This can also be seen on the event’s social media channels. The social media posts published during the event and in the preceding weeks reached approximately 1.1 million reads. These are wild numbers, how people share photos and thereby participate in the event.
Compared to last year, social media numbers on Facebook and Instagram grew by about 57 percent. Impressions are only used to measure the views of the City of Valo’s publications on social media, i.e. publications made by other accounts are not even counted.
In Ruotslainen’s words, light means a sense of security, a beautiful home town and partly energy saving, because Jyväskylä has invested heavily in the energy efficiency of lighting.
– Light is at its best a source of joy and creates life around it.
According to Ruotslainen, the event went smoothly despite the large crowds.
The lighting-focused event has a long tradition in Jyväskylä.
The light-themed City of Light event focusing on urban culture was organized for the first time in 2003 under the name Valo on Jyväskylä.
At the time, the event was Finland’s first event focused on architectural lighting, which was known for, among other things, a professional seminar and test lighting.
From 2016, the event began to be profiled more in temporary light art and side events. However, highlighting new lighting objects and the lighting industry seminar have still remained an essential part of the event.