Riyadh Glows Again

Noor Riyadh 2025 returns: the city after dark

Riyadh is about to glow again. Noor Riyadh comes back for its fifth edition from 20 November to 6 December 2025, turning the capital into an open air gallery of light, sound, and scale. This year’s theme, In the Blink of an Eye, looks at speed, perception, and a city in motion. Expect more than sixty installations and performances that trace a path from the historic core to the new skyline.

When and where

• Dates: 20 November to 6 December 2025

• Daily timings: installations illuminate 6:00 pm to 1:00 am

• Citywide hubs: Qasr Al Hokm District, King Abdulaziz Historical Center, stc Metro Station, KAFD Station, Public Investment Fund Tower, and JAX District. The route intentionally links heritage streets, museum courtyards, the metro spine, and the financial district so visitors can experience the festival by foot and by train.

  
  

The curatorial lens

Noor Riyadh 2025 is shaped by an international team: Mami Kataoka of Mori Art Museum, Li Zhenhua of Beijing Art Lab, and Riyadh based curator Sara Almutlaq. Their brief invites artists to play with memory and speed, asking how a single instant can change how we read the city. A capsule in Venice previewed the curatorial approach ahead of the festival, drawing a straight line between Riyadh’s rapid transformation and contemporary light practice.

What to expect on the ground

The 2025 program brings around sixty artworks by fifty nine artists from twenty four countries, with more than thirty five new commissions. Names announced include Saad Al Howede, Monira Al Qadiri, Abdulrahman Al Soliman, James Clar, Ivana Franke, fuse*, Ayoung Kim, Shinji Ohmaki, Michelangelo Pistoletto, and Muhannad Shono. Expect projections, kinetic pieces, immersive corridors of light, and works that respond to wind, sound, and the flow of people through metro stations and plazas.

A brief history

Noor Riyadh launched in 2021 and has grown into the world’s largest light art festival under the Riyadh Art program. The third edition in 2023 was led by Jérôme Sans with a team of curators and stretched across five main sites including KAFD and JAX. The fourth edition in 2024, Light Years Apart, was curated by Dr Effat Abdullah Fadag and Dr Alfredo Cramerotti and logged new Guinness World Records while drawing millions of visits. The festival’s evolution tracks with Vision 2030 and with Riyadh Art’s mandate to seed public art across the city.

Practical details for visitors

• Hours: plan your walk for 6:00 pm to 1:00 am when installations are lit. Weekday evenings are calmer, while weekends bring more buzz.

• Getting around: the stc and KAFD metro stations double as festival sites, so the train becomes part of the experience. Heritage sites and museum precincts host intimate works, while tower facades carry large scale pieces.

• Program beyond the works: expect talks, tours, and workshops produced by Riyadh Art and partners, designed to open the making process to students and families.

  
  

Why this edition matters

The theme asks us to pay attention to the instant. Riyadh is changing quickly. The curatorial team uses light to freeze a moment so audiences can notice texture, memory, and rhythm. The choice of locations bridges eras of the city, from the courts of Qasr Al Hokm to the glass of PIF Tower. The result is a map you can walk, a set of encounters after dark, and a portrait of a capital that treats public space as a studio.