When visitors got to be in the picture, it became better ‒ so much better that it won the Nobel Prize Museum’s photo contest from Nobel Week Lights. And the people who took the opportunity to visit the 2024 light festival made a record-breaking number of visits. Figures from research companies Ipsos and Exquiro show that over 1.7 million visits were made to the artworks during the nine December days that the festival lasted.
“The fact that the festival had over 1.7 million visits to the various artistic light installations is absolutely fantastic,” says Erika Lanner, Director of the Nobel Prize Museum. “The surveys we have conducted also show that 90 per cent were satisfied with their visit and believe they would like to return and see next year’s festival. That’s a very high rating.”
A photo contest was held during Nobel Week Lights, and in January the winner was chosen: Shakir Mohamed. He is very happy, and he says that many people were visiting the light festival when he went out to take photos. The night he took the winning picture was cold and windy. At first, he had planned to photograph the artwork without people. But there was a constant flow of new visitors around the work, so he had to think again.
“Instead, I chose to include visitors in the image,” Shakir Mohamed says. “I waited for the right moment, and the photo turned out better than I could have imagined.”
Shakir Mohamed grew up in Sri Lanka but has lived in Sweden since 2017. Photography has been a hobby for as long as he can remember, and for the past two years he has been working as a photographer alongside his work as an IT consultant.
“When I take a picture, I can freeze a moment in time and relive the memories when I look at the photo later,” he says. “Whether it’s a person, a place, or something else, a photograph has the power to bring back the emotions and stories of that particular moment.”
The photo contest
Over 700 entries were submitted to the Nobel Prize Museum’s photo contest, and ten finalists were selected. The winner was chosen through a vote on the Nobel Prize Museum’s Facebook.
Visitor statistics
This year, the Nobel Prize Museum enlisted the help of research companies Ipsos and Exquiro to gather more information about the Nobel Week Lights experience and estimate how many people visited the festival in December 2024. Ipsos conducted a digital survey of Greater Stockholm residents, while Exquiro met both domestic and foreign visitors on site at the installation projected on the Stockholm City Hall façade during the last three days of the festival. The surveys show that the light festival had just over 340,000 individual visitors during the nine days that it lasted. These visitors viewed an average of five different artworks during the festival, which means that over 1,700,000 visits to installations took place.
– The most visited was the Leading Lights installation at the City Hall by the design studio Les Ateliers BK (Ipsos, Exquiro).
– 96 per cent of all visitors stated that they are inclined to recommend the festival to friends and acquaintances (Exquiro).
– 91 per cent believe they will visit the festival next year again (Exquiro).
– 9 out of 10 said they were satisfied with their visit (Ipsos).
– 81 per cent of those who were aware of the festival think that Nobel Week Lights is a valuable event for Stockholm residents (Ipsos).
About Nobel Week Lights
Nobel Week Lights was initiated and is curated and produced by Annika Levin, Alexandra Manson, Lara Szabo Greisman and Troika AB. The event is part of the yearly Nobel Week programme and is presented by the Nobel Prize Museum with support from Principal Partners the City of Stockholm, Einar Mattsson AB, Fagerhult, FAM and Grand Hôtel Stockholm, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, Erling-Persson Foundation, and Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation as well as a number of other partners.