ILLUMINATE 2026

ILLUMINATE 2026 runs November 21 and 22 at the Art Castle, the latest edition of Utah's light art and creative tech festival. It's a free public event produced by the Utah Arts Alliance, and this year it centers on the Art Castle itself—the historic 120-year-old 15th Ward Chapel at 915 West 100 South.

If you've seen ILLUMINATE before, you know the general vibe: it takes city streets and public spaces and turns them into an immersive canvas. This edition brings that to the Art Castle with large-scale light installations, projection mapping, interactive STEAM experiences, live performances, and drone shows. The whole thing is built around the intersection of art, light, and creative technology, so you'll see a mix of things you can just look at and things you can actually interact with.

There's a bit more to this year's location than just the festival. The Art Castle is the centerpiece of a larger project by the Utah Arts Alliance to acquire, preserve, and renovate the chapel, with the goal of turning it into a community gathering space, an arts and creative industries incubator, and an immersive art attraction. They're pitching it as an economic development driver and a tourism draw for one of the state's most underserved areas, so the festival is as much about the building as it is about the light shows.

Sessions start around 4 PM on both days, and it's free to attend. The Art Castle is at 915 West 100 South in Salt Lake City.