LUMA Festival to Light up Downtown Binghamton

One of the greatest things about Binghamton is the overwhelming passion and immense creativity of our local artists who are constantly thinking outside of the box to bring us pieces that awe, inspire, and put Binghamton on the map in a really big way.

Binghamton's First Friday Art Walk for September will once again be elevated to a new height of epic proportions with the LUMA Projection Arts Festival which has become a destination event for people in the Southern Tier and beyond. During the evening hours of Friday, September 6 and Saturday, September 7, buildings in downtown Binghamton will be transformed into stunning works of art featuring light, animation projection, and sound. Admission to the open-air projections are completely free.

Both local and international artists will use 3-D mapping to mimic the shape and architectural elements of each building so that the images and video will flow with the building outline. High-powered projectors will then be strategically placed to light up the entire face of the building, creating a live canvas right before our eyes.

Binghamton officials estimate more than 35,000 people visited the Luma Festival in 2018 as our city was brought to life through light. The number of attendees is expected to grow even more for the 2019 festival.

In an interview with the Press and Sun-Bulletin, LUMA co-founder Joshua Ludzki said, “There’s something really magical and mystical about it. This familiar structure that you’ve seen downtown a hundred times before, that sort of blends into the background, suddenly ... sort of explodes in this way that (makes) you go, ‘My God.’”

New to LUMA in 2019 is Freckled Sky, a group who perform incredible and mind blowing shows with digital special effects and projection mappings. Freckled Sky has performed on the television show "America's Got Talent" and now they'll bring their talents to the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena at 8:30 p.m., 9:10 p.m. and 9:50 p.m. on Friday, September 6 and Saturday, September 7.

[via Press and Sun/Gorgeous Washington Street Association/LUMA Festival/I Love NY]