Macao Travel News

Macao Light Festival 2021 brings travellers from Mars

The Macao Light Festival 2021 is bringing to the city light installations, interactive games and projection mapping shows, under the theme “Travellers from Mars”. The aim is to cheer various communities across Macao and attract more visitors to the city, with the displays being held every night between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. from 4 December to 2 January 2022, inclusive.

This year, there will be four different projection mapping shows. Among the displays, one is brought by a team from Changsha, a UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts, with its display – “Original Flavour of Macao”. It will be at a location new to the Macao Light Festival, the Macao Science Center.

A Macao team designed a mapping show called “In Pair”, to be displayed at another site new to the annual festival, the Chapel of St. Francis Xavier in Coloane. The Chapel of St. Francis Xavier had already featured among the locations of mapping shows to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Macao SAR in 2014.

Largo do Pagode do Bazar will be the location for a light display about the future development of the Guangdong-Macao In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin. The light show is being presented by the Livelihood Affairs Bureau of the Guangdong-Macao In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, and is called “We”.

A team from Tokyo will present its display, titled “GLID”, at the façades of the buildings at Largo dos Bombeiros in Taipa Village. The team cannot come to Macao owing to the pandemic, but it will transfer its production to a local coordinator that will assist with the show.

This year’s Macao Light Festival shows the rich culture and urban charm of Macao, and demonstrates that Macao is a vibrant city and a safe place to visit. The festival will be launched on 4 December, concurrently with the “Light up Macao Drone Gala”, a symphony of drone technology, integrating 2D and 3D design, light and sound (read more here).

The festival is organised by the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) in partnership with other departments of the Macao SAR Government, with the Livelihood Affairs Bureau of Guangdong-Macao In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin as a supporting entity.

“Tourism +” glamour

The festival puts the focus on Macao’s “tourism +” cross-sector integration initiatives, by weaving together “tourism + culture and creativity” to manifest Macao’s image as a unique destination with diverse travel offerings, and to inject vitality into neighbourhood communities and help revive the local economy.

In addition to video mapping shows, seven places, including the Nam Van Lake Nautical Centre, Anim’Arte NAM VAN, the Leisure Area at Rua do General Ivens Ferraz in Fai Chi Kei, Taipa Village, and Coloane, are featuring light installations and interactive games as part of the network of routes for this year’s festival.

The festival is expected to entice residents and visitors into the various neighbourhoods for sightseeing and shopping, benefitting small and medium-sized enterprises and injecting new impetus into the neighbourhoods’ economies.

Along the routes are spots for online and on-site interactive games. After completing the games, visitors and residents can take selfies and check in on social media platforms to obtain themed gifts.

The locations of the festival highlight the beauty of the World Heritage architecture Macao possesses and the characteristics that distinguish the various communities that make up the city, as well as providing manifestations of the status of Macao as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy.

A range of pandemic prevention measures will be adopted for the Macao Light Festival 2021. Entrances and exits will be set up for designated areas for the festival, with implementation of crowd management measures. According to the actual situation on site, members of the public will have to line up for admission and are required to present their Macao Health Code in green colour, undergo temperature checks and maintain at least one-metre social distance, in addition to wearing masks throughout the entire time on site.

The Macao Light Festival, now in its seventh year, is already a signature event of the city. The annual festival is an example of the diversity of event products and experiences Macao has to offer, in line with the aim of making Macao a world centre of tourism and leisure.

For more information about the Macao Light Festival, please visit the MGTO website at www.macaotourism.gov.mo or the Office’s official WeChat.

Additional ferry sailings during Macao Light Festival

The operator of the ferry link between Barra pier, near A-Ma Temple in Macao, and the Coloane village pier will add some night-time sailings during the Macao Light Festival 2021, available every Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and public holidays. The festival will take place from 4 December to 2 January 2022, inclusive.

The additional sailings from Barra pier will be at 7:30 p.m., 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. From Coloane, extra sailings will run each hour from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., inclusive. Ferry operator Shun Tak-China Travel Ship Management Co. Ltd. is sailing the route. A one-way trip takes about 25 minutes and costs MOP60. Tickets may be booked in advance online at www.macaucruise.com.