Luna Fête 2023, New Orleans’ light arts festival, turns 10. Here's what is new this year.

Luna Fête X lights up the night in New Orleans and Gretna from Dec. 7-10, with glowing, interactive artworks, craft booths, live music and large-scale architectural projection.

In 2014, a new festival sprang up in New Orleans, unlike anything the city had seen before. Inspired by modern European light festivals, Luna Fête blended art with high technology. The focus of the first fest was a dazzling computer animation, depicting the history of New Orleans, tailor-made to be projected on the façade of stately old Gallier Hall. It was a sensation.

Ten years later, the fest has left its original location in Lafayette Square. The nocturnal, outdoor event is now anchored at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center Pedestrian Parkway, and the adjacent Mississippi River Heritage Park. 

Luna Fête has regularly presented architectural projections and other artworks in various remote locations around the city. This year, the town of Gretna on the West Bank is set to shine with digital animation and other attractions that celebrate life along the Mississippi River.

If all goes as planned, a ferry between the Canal Street terminal and the Gretna terminal will connect Luna Fête’s two parts. The first ferry will leave Canal Street at 5:30 p.m. and continue through the evening.

The December festival is not holiday themed. Yet the free, glittering event, which is produced by Arts New Orleans, has always felt like a gift to the city.

New Orleans-side

This year, Luna Fête is mostly free, but the major highlight, something called the “Luminarium: Daedalum,” located at Mississippi River Heritage Park, 900 Convention Center Blvd., requires an $11.50 adult admission (including payment fees), $6.25 for kids 5 to 9, free for kids under 5. For advance tickets, visit the Luna Fête website at lunafete.com.

The “Luminarium: Daedalum,” is described as “a maze of winding paths and inspiring domes where the visitors may lose themselves in sensory bliss.” Based on online photographs, the sculpture, by the Architects of Air firm in Nottingham, England, should be a lushly lit, science fiction-style adventure. The “Luminarium” operates from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Dec. 7-8, and 3:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Dec. 9-10.

Other artworks at the Convention Center location include Anais Franco’s interactive “Extended Iris,” which scans the eyes of participants and blends those images with telescope views of galaxies. Monique Lorden’s sculpture “Tethered to the Land, a Story Told by the Lower 9” is a lighted metal piano that projects words onto the Earth. The sculpture will be installed permanently in the Lower 9th Ward in 2024.

Gretna-side

At Gretna City Hall, 740 Second St., audiences will view artist Christina Molina’s animated projection “The Memory of Miss River,” in which the river is interpreted as a living being. Artist Courtney Egan will present “Eco-Logic,” an animation focusing on indigenous birds and insects. And David Sullivan’s “River Journey: A History of Boats on the Mississippi River” will illuminate the river’s role in exploration and trade. Projections take place at 6 p.m., 7 p.m., 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.

At the Gretna Amphitheater, at the corner of First Street and Huey P. Long Avenue, Hermetic Productions will present an animated piece titled “Interwoven,” in which holographic illusions will be projected on the surface of the river at 6:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

A giant snapping turtle lantern puppet by Whatchamapuppet, sure to be a crowd pleaser, will wander Memorial Square at 7:45 each evening.

Luna Fête X is centered at the Morial Convention Center, 900 Convention Center Blvd. It takes place from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., from Dec. 7-10. For information as it becomes available, visit the Luna Fête website. "Luna Fête West: The River Connection" centered at the Gretna City Hall, 740 Second St., takes place from 6 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. Dec. 7-10. Visit the Gretna website for information at gretnala.com.