Finland's capital is aglow with colourful lights and lasers piercing the black winter skies and lighting up downtown buildings providing a much-needed burst of illumination during the darkest days of the year.
Light and sound installations at the Helsinki Lux Festival brought crowds at the city landmarks joined by lanterns hanging in trees along a path of light bordering the frozen Baltic Sea through parks and on city footpaths, where the shortest period of daylight in midwinter is about five hours long.
The path meanders through an old railway tunnel along a new bicycle and pedestrian lane where movements of those passing by are projected in a light show cast onto a wall of granite blocks below the Parliament building, accompanied to music.
Nearby, groups of people stamp their feet in freezing temperatures staring into the Sodium Sun, a collection of glaring orange-yellow strip lights that seemingly emit a hum that swirls across the square.
Markku Uimonen, the artistic director of the festival, says the aim is to provide light to people in the Nordic night.
