Yanzhong Green Space, downtown Shanghai's largest urban green space, has been transformed into a glittering art paradise for the 3rd Shanghai International Light Festival.

Covering 230,000 square meters, the park combines light and nature to create a series of immersive scenes, inviting visitors to slow down and experience the city from a different perspective.

It unfolds across three immersive light scenes – Dragon Gate Fish Array, Birdsong and Floral Fragrance, and Family Companionship – built around themes of hope, relaxation and family bonds.

Visitors can move through an open-air "forest of light," where many of the artworks are deliberately left unnamed, encouraging people to interpret them in their own way and engage with the installations.

Blending Chinese aesthetics with modern technology and international artistic perspectives, the festival features dozens of interactive works.

Highlights include AI-powered trees, gesture-responsive butterfly projections, dynamic light rain and morning-mist scenes that shift with the movement of the crowd. A traditional lantern installation also brings intangible cultural heritage to life with thousands of handcrafted night heron sculptures.

International collaborations are another draw, with original works by artists from Croatia, the Netherlands and South Korea making their festival debuts.

Among them is BLOOM DATA, an interactive audiovisual installation by Croatian multimedia artist and creative technologist Alex Brajkovic and his partner Ida Blazicko.

Using real-time gesture recognition, the work brings Zagreb's orchids and Shanghai's white magnolias to life, creating a visual dialogue between nature, technology and the two cities. The piece also marks the 46th anniversary of the sister-city relationship between Shanghai and Zagreb.

"It is an interactive artwork created especially for the festival as it connects two botanical symbols, orchids associated with Zagreb, Croatia, and white magnolia, the city flower of Shanghai," said Brajkovic.

AI technology fuses magnolia and orchid into flowing particle light shows, building a cultural dialogue bridge between the two cities via light art.

"The work combines nature, contemporary technology and human presence. Through their gestures and movements, visitors shape the visual world on the screen, and flowers, lights, sound and data respond in real time, making each encounter with the artwork unique."

The experience extends beyond the installations.

From September 18 to 27, the century-old Shanghai Concert Hall will become a canvas for large-scale facade projections, paired with live water-dance performances and a programme of international artists and themed shows.

From September 28 to October 7, outdoor light shows and live performances will continue, bringing an added sense of celebration to the National Day holiday.