News
Olot lights up the night with Lluèrnia: the dialogue of fire and light
On November 7th and 8th, Olot will light up again with a new edition of Lluèrnia, the Festival of Fire and Light, which since 2011 has invited citizens and artists to rediscover the city through the magic of light, fire and collective creativity.
Lluèrnia is the Festival of Fire and Light that takes place annually in the city of Olot, in the Garrotxa region, in the heart of Catalonia. This event, which combines art, creativity and heritage, transforms the streets, squares and corners of the city for a few hours into a large stage full of ephemeral installations, shows and games of light and fire.
In this context, the month of November, often perceived as a time of pause and silence, becomes a space to rekindle the light. Lluèrnia fits into this gap in the calendar and transforms it into a celebration that connects with the feast of Sant Martí —a heritage that mixes pagan and Christian symbols, fire and hearth, light and the bonanza of summer. Sant Martí is, in a way, the memory of an ancient myth, perhaps the Christianized version of Prometheus, the hero who stole fire from the gods to give it to humanity.
The name Lluèrnia comes from the Catalan word “lluèrnia”, which means a small light or a fleeting glow, a kind of brief dazzle that breaks the darkness. This idea perfectly symbolizes the spirit of the festival: creating moments of light and magic in the middle of the night, inviting the public to rediscover urban space through the poetic gaze of light.
The Festival of Fire and Light was born with the desire to make visible the deep bond between the city of Olot and its volcanic environment - an ancient dialogue between earth and fire that, over the centuries, has shaped not only the orography and landscape of La Garrotxa, but also the character, imagination and culture of its people.
Thus, Lluèrnia becomes a contemporary metaphor for that Promethean gesture: an invitation to share light in all its forms—artistic, symbolic and emotional. The festival aligns with new trends in celebrations around fire and light, driven by current projection and lighting technologies, which allow the creation of surprising visual landscapes. At the same time, it offers a new look at what pyrotechnic shows used to be, now adapted to safety requirements, but without losing their ancestral essence: the human fascination with the light that comes from fire.
