Beam of Hope: rows of searchlights rising over the V&A Waterfront harbour

00 / Since 31 December 2020

Beam of Hope. One light,unitingthe city.

Name: The Art of Light
Start: 2026-11-20T17:00:00+02:00
End: 2026-11-29T22:30:00+02:00
Location: Norval Foundation

Gareth's bat-signal

Born at the V&A Waterfront on the New Year's Eve that couldn't happen, and seen across the city ever since.

01 / Origin

No fireworks.No crowd.Just light.

Beam of Hope rising from the V&A Waterfront, seen above the lights of Cape Town

New Year's Eve 2020. For the first time in its 30-year history, the V&A Waterfront had no crowd and no fireworks. Covid had called it off.

Gareth was asked to create something with impact, something that could help unite a city stuck at home. He took the risk: 36 high-power searchlights, pointed straight up. Nobody knew how it would be seen across Cape Town. The Waterfront backed him and the idea, and at midnight the beam was born.

A tribute of light and hope for the lives lost, the jobs affected and a country standing together. On a clear night it could be seen from homes across the city bowl.

“Hope is being able to see that there is light, despite all of the darkness.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu

02 / Since 2020

One beam.Every time the cityneeded it.

31 Dec 2020
V&A Waterfront
Switched on at midnight in place of the fireworks. Lit again at 21:00 for six nights into 2021.
31 Dec 2021
Back for 2022
Turned purple in honour of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who died on 26 December 2021. The Waterfront brought the beam back to welcome 2022, with DeVille playing the countdown, then six more nights.
3 to 12 Apr 2026
Company's Garden
Lit from 3 April as the lead-in to LUMENOCITY, then rose from the heart of the city for all four nights.
20 to 29 Nov 2026
Norval Foundation
The calling card of The Art of Light, in Tokai.

Seen from
everywhere.

2020 · 2021 · 2026

The beam rising from the harbour with the city behind — 2020

The beam beside the Waterfront wheel — 2020

Looking straight up into the searchlights — 2020

Searchlights firing upward at night — 2020

The beam over the harbour from above — 2020

Beams converging into a cone above the quay — 2021

The beam behind a parked vehicle on the quay — 2021

Columns of light behind the equestrian statue — 2026

Visitors in Company's Garden with the beam behind — 2026

The statue lit gold beneath a cone of blue light — 2026

The lighting rig by day, wrapped in LUMENOCITY branding — 2026, the rig

The beam seen from a distance across the city — 2026

#beamofhope

The whole citylooked up.

People photographed it from balconies, hillsides and suburbs as far away as Claremont, and shared it under #beamofhope and #joyfromafrica. In 2026 the press picked it up again.

03 / LUMENOCITY

Marking theheart ofthe city.

Visible from anywhere in Cape Town. The Beam rose from the heart of the city, marking LUMENOCITY and pulling visitors in.

Switched on from 3 April 2026 as the lead-in, then rose over Company's Garden for all four nights, 9 to 12 April.

04 / The Art of Light

Same light.A setting ofits own.

A walkable light-art experience at Norval Foundation. A curated selection of works from LUMENOCITY by South African artists, with Beam of Hope as the calling card.

Nightly 17:00 to 22:30 20 to 29 Nov 2026 Norval Foundation, 4 Steenberg Road, Tokai

Tickets ↗ theartoflight.co.za ↗

05 / ΛLCHEMY

We don't stage events.We engineertransformation.

A concept-to-completion event design and production studio. Live event, stage and brand architecture, orchestrating scenic, lighting, video and motion into a singular vision. The studio behind LUMENOCITY.

RolexRichemontMercedes-AMGRMBSanlamSantamParamountBlack CoffeeMetro FMYPO

Think outside the bot.

alchemy.online ↗

Founder

Gareth Hadden

A Cape Town-based Creative Producer and Show Director with a passion for large-scale experiences that merge precision engineering with artistic vision.

After leaving Gearhouse in 2010, he co-founded Formative, which evolved into ΛLCHEMY. Credits include Cassper Nyovest's Fill Up, Rolex Mentor and Protégé, Apple TV, the YPO Global Summit and the V&A Waterfront's New Year's Eve.

Studios in Cape Town and Dubai.