Lincoln Square BID Unveils First-in-Kind Interactive Holiday Lights Installation in NYC: Magical Lights

The Lincoln Square Business Improvement District (BID) has reimagined their holiday lighting this year, announcing today a first-in-kind interactive dazzling display: Magical Lights.

Taking root in Dante Park (Broadway & West 64th Street), the new immersive light installation will be on display through the end of January and features eight giant London Plane trees dripping with hundreds of strands of hanging light vines that react to and are influenced by the public – twinkling to the rhythm of Lincoln Square’s beat and NYC’s soundscape. Visitors to the park can participate in pop-up SING-ALONGs (see lineup below), clap, sing, or play a tune to make the lights dance and change colors, creating a magical and memorable new sensory experience. Magical Lights were created by Limbic Media, a transdisciplinary team of artist-engineers with a passion for technology and the arts utilizing their Aurora technology.

Magical Lights will be unveiled with a lighting ceremony on Tuesday, December 5, 2023, at 4:30 p.m. with the BID also lighting 20 trees across the Broadway malls from Columbus Circle up to 70th St., shining an even brighter light on the neighborhood’s vibrant and robust business and restaurant community.

The lighting will also kick off a series of SING-ALONGS and programming, including an illuminated neighborhood procession, the second annual WinteRamble, led by Processional Arts Workshop’s giant Frost Puppets on the winter solstice (December 21) as the community marks the arrival of winter together. Visitors and residents can participate in the WinteRamble by volunteering to carry a crystalline icicle lantern, create their own mini lantern by joining a workshop before the procession and then carry their new creation during the procession or join J.C. King’s Kalimbascope, a rolling ensemble of acoustically-enhanced thumb pianos.