Signal Festival to light up Prague for the 13th time
The popular Signal Festival will once again light up the streets of Prague. Known for its breath-taking displays that bring buildings to life, Signal has become the most visited cultural event in the Czech Republic. Now in its 13th year, the festival will present 20 installations across Prague, combining contemporary visual art with urban space and modern technology. Radio Prague International spoke to the festival’s director, Martin Pošta, about what the festival has to offer.
“The Signal Festival is an annual event that takes place in the streets of Prague for four nights, October 16 to 19. We try to show the best of contemporary digital art in Prague's streets, with most installations freely accessible. Some of the artworks are presented in indoor locations, too.
“To an audience who does not know what the Signal Festival is, they can imagine large-scale projections on buildings, performative digital art shows, kinetic works, and various types of different artistic performances and shows that artists from all around the world put up in the streets of Prague. The theme of this edition is the third part of the so-called ‘ecosystems.’ We're trying to find solutions to what we are as a society, and what we're facing – seen through artists' eyes and works.”
Many people associate the festival especially with the large-scale projections on buildings that you mentioned. How exactly do they work?
"Basically, you dress up the facade through animations."
“Basically, you scan a facade of a building - which could be anything from a smaller building to large-scale cathedral - and then you take the scan and you place it into a specialized computer programme, through which you animate a skin to the facade. So basically, you dress up the facade through animations. The technology has been around for quite some time now – it has been in the general public’s eyes for around 13 years.”
So what are some of the locations featured this year?
“We take pride in traveling around the city. So each year, we change locations. This year, we are in the city centre, which is usually the centre-point of the Festival. And then we go to Vinohrady, which is Prague 2 and Prague 3, where the St. Ludmila Basilica on Náměstí Míru is one of the main locations. Around St. Ludmila we have more installations, including some indoor locations - for example, Club Trezor, which will host a performance presented by a dance studio company.
“Some of the other locations include the Old Town Square. We're also doing some projections on water at the Dvořákovo Nábreží - one of Prague’s riverbanks.”
So, Signal really takes over the whole of Prague, and it has grown to become one of the most visited cultural events in the Czech Republic. How do you work with the city of Prague to manage the crowds and logistics linked to such a large-scale event?
"We have managed to grow to become one of the most attended and probably also most loved events in Prague. We take special pride in that."
“It's quite a lot. Our responsibility is to take care of everything around the festival. But the city of Prague is very helpful and has been supportive of the festival for 13 years. And thanks to that support and, of course, the support of our partners and great team, we have managed to grow to become one of the most attended and probably also loved events in Prague. We take special pride in that.”
The Signal Festival is sometimes described as a festival of light, but it is really much more than that. It includes conferences and other events discussing the future of digital art. What kind of conversation do you hope to spark through the Festival?
“For us, the educational and forward-looking part of the Festival is really important – not just the public part, which is the most obvious part. Through the conferences that we invite over 50 guests from around the world to, we try to find answers to what will come next in digital art - how art, technology, and society can help shape society or shape the ways we move forward. And obviously, we think that education in specific themes and topics around digital is are very important to the general public, as well as to the artistic public – so, we try to shape those conversations as well.”
Is there anything you personally are most excited about?
“For me, the past few years have been about opening a digital art gallery, which will be a part of Signal Festival this year. It's called Signal Space, and I'm just here right now. It is one of the locations of the festival, where we will present 10 artworks from artists from around the world. I'm very happy that we have managed to pull this through.
“And as for other locations, I'm really looking forward to seeing, again, artwork by Josep Poblet, who is a Catalan/Spanish artist. His work is going to be presented in the Archbishop Grammar School on Náměstí Míru.”
The Signal Festival at a glance
Dates: October 16–19, 2025
Time: Daily from 7:00 p.m. to midnight
Routes: The organisers recommend following the two suggested festival routes – Centrum and Vinohrady – which have been designed with safety, accessibility, and public space limitations in mind. Maps for both routes are available on the festival website, including in English.
Installations: The festival features a total of 20 installations: 13 outdoor installations are publicly accessible and free of charge. 7 indoor installations are part of Signal INSIDE, which requires a ticket, has controlled entry, and limited capacity.
Signal Forum: A professional programme of lectures and debates (registration required).
Signal Space: A year-round gallery of digital and immersive art in the centre of Prague.
