Your Guide to BLINK 2022, Cincinnati's Massive Art and Light Festival

Everything you need to know about BLINK, from can't-miss installations and drone shows to road closures and a map to all 101 experiences.

Oct 12, 2022 at 8:59 am

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Photo: Hailey Bollinger

The BLINK festival kicks off with an illuminated parade.

From Oct. 13-16, the BLINK festival will convert 30 blocks of downtown Cincinnati, Over-the-Rhine and Covington into a lineup of literally and figuratively glowing visual, auditory and kinesthetic encounters.

Touting itself as “the nation’s largest light, art and projection-mapping experience," the streets and structures of Greater Cincinnati will be transformed by way of large-scale new murals, light installations, interactive sculptures, performance art, live entertainment and projection mapping (which casts computer-programmed light, color and animations across three-dimensional surfaces).

Back for the third time since its inception in 2017, attendees can also expect a crowd of 1.3 million people, if 2019's event numbers are any hint.

Here are the fast facts for this weekend's BLINK:

Hours are 7-11 p.m. nightly from Oct. 13-16
Admission is free (except for the Architects of Air inflatable luminarium)
101 installations will be spread across the city, from Findlay Market to Covington (see the official map)

Festivities officially kick off at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 13 with an illuminated parade through downtown Cincinnati. The glowing procession — themed “Together: a constellation of shared cultures and unique identities" — will feature 85 different local artists, organizations and students making their way down Fifth Street from Broadway to Elm streets.

Then a new-this-year drone show will take to the skies at 9 and 10:30 p.m. on Oct. 13 and 8 and 10 p.m. Oct. 14-16.

The rest of BLINK will be set up throughout the weekend and is a self-guided experience.

Here's everything you need to know: