BLINK is always a visual spectacle, and this year’s festival was no different. The largest display of light and art in the U.S., BLINK 2026 spanned 30 blocks from Findlay Market all the way down to Covington.
While I sadly didn’t make it to the Covington zone this year due to the rainy weather on Saturday, the installations on this side of the river were nothing short of breathtaking. Here were the best things I saw at this year’s event.
Honorable Mention: Jacob’s Wall
This was the very last thing I saw on Saturday night in a completely empty parking lot on Pleasant Street. What initially seemed simplistic — it’s just some lights on some fabric? — revealed itself to be much more intricate, and had my friends and I staring for a good 15 minutes trying to figure out how it all worked.
#5: The Hive
BLINK often brings in stellar artistic talent from all over the globe, and this piece, hailing all the way from Perth, Australia, was no different. Positioned just outside The Banks, a series of hexagonal shapes alternated different colors and graphics to a sequence of electronic music. Check our Instagram page for a more accurate representation of how dazzling this was — pictures don’t do it justice.
#4: Music Hall
The Music Hall projections were a highlight of BLINK 2024; not much has changed this go-round. Four different shows: “Collective Memory,” “PULSE,” “The Common Ascent,” and a live drum performance from Brett Bolton with visuals on the building matching his playing in real-time were all part of this year’s spectacle. Of the four, “PULSE” was my favorite, but all of them were so cool that I stopped by Music Hall on Thursday, Friday, *and* Saturday for repeat viewings.
#3: The American Building Experience
Just look at this picture. Is this creepy, or what? All three shows at this site (“Supergent,” “Metatecture” and “Aspect”) blew me away, but I’m never gonna be able to walk by this building again without thinking of this woman with 8,000 limbs growing out of her head like some sort of Resident Evil villain. If only this could stay up year-round so I could be freaked out all the time.
#2: Geist
As part of the Asianati Night Market, I could’ve spent all night at this installation. From a distance, this looks like a light trapped behind some glass. It definitely looks like a “digital ghost” from afar but seems otherwise uninteresting — sure, some lights in a box, we’ve seen this at BLINK plenty of times before. Then you move through the crowd and realize you can stick your hand inside and affect the lights, and that the whole thing is actually one big giant mirror. It’s the kind of surprise that makes BLINK such a unique event, cause you’ll never know what you’ll find around each and every corner.
#1: String Theory for Dummies 2.0
If I was going to show someone why BLINK is cool, I’d probably just show them all my pictures and videos from “String Theory for Dummies” at Elm Street Plaza. A ton of fluorescent acrylic yarn is paired with UV light and UV lasers to create plenty of insane visual effects that are as fun to watch from a distance as they are to see up close and personal. It’s interactive, too —pulling on hanging strings or throwing a bunch of yarn on top from the side creates all-new structures.
I’d love to see a picture of what this exhibition looked like by the time BLINK ended, as I’d bet it looked completely different from when I saw it early Saturday evening. Regardless, installations like this are exactly what the festival should be: stunning public art that also lets bystanders participate in its creation. My friends and I sat underneath this one for an extended period laughing, taking photos, pulling on strings and staring into the mass of yarn above us. It was an unforgettable experience.
