The Leaks Festival 2025 rediscover the Gare district

A weekend full of contrasts: Streetphotography at the Light Leaks Festival, discovery trips through 38 museums at the Luxembourg Museum Days and a classic concert that conveys between romance and modernity.

The station district through the lens of photography

Luxembourg’s station district is a lot – through place, urban center, habitat and unfortunately frowned upon – prostitution and platform for drug trafficking. But it is precisely these many facets, prejudices and hidden beauties make the quarter interesting for the photographic eye. The station district, one of the most dynamic, but also the most complex quarter of the city, is therefore also the focus of the Light Leaks Festival 2025.

Due to renovation work in the Rotondes gallery in Bonneweg, where the festival was previously at home, the exhibitions will be completely relocated this time. Visitors can find the works in the middle of the neighborhood, where they were created.

A central project is « Mäi Quartier » on Place de Strasbourg. Here, residents as well as local players in the quarter show their very personal perspectives-captured with disposable cameras that the streetphoto collective has distributed to young people and institutions such as the Jeunes club. The result is intimate, unadorned pictures of everyday life that show life in the cook from the perspective of those who experience it every day.

Other works can be seen on the Parvis of the Rotondes. There, members of the Luxembourg Streetphoto Collective, the winner of the Slide Night 2024, as well as students of the Lycée Aline Mayrisch and the Lycée des Arts et Métier, show their big-format work. Particularly noteworthy is the youth competition, which invited students to explore the Gare photographically. The best work will be awarded on Sunday, May 18 – a signal for the promotion of young talents and the artistic offspring.

Experimental formats also find space in the festival: With “Loop & Cube”, the club turns into an immersive installation. « The Rock in the River » by Liz Lambert and Dirk Mevis, which stage the train station as a fixed point in the middle of restless movement, is particularly impressive. Her work shows how the Bahnhofsviertel is not only physically, but emotionally a place of transitions between departure, arriving and lingering.

Meanwhile, the photothèque du Luxembourg is an exciting historical counterpoint with an archive exhibition on the passenger of the capital station. Photographs that document the district in earlier decades are shown. This creates a visual dialogue between past and the present.

Light Leaks Festival until Sunday, May 18th in the Bahnhofsviertel: Information and details on lectures, workshops, exhibitions, sales stands of photo books and photo material on the website lightleaks.lu

« Hop Hop an de Musée! »

This weekend, 38 museums throughout Luxembourg invite you to visit the Luxembourg Museum in 2025. Under the motto « Hop Hop an de Musée! » There are also numerous special promotions: creative workshops, tours, concerts, performances and activities for the whole family. The great success of the previous year’s edition with over 22,000 visits shows that interest in museums is growing. This year, the topic of « the future of museums in a rapidly changing communities » – an exciting discourse on change in society, technology and the environment, is important impulses to the museums. There is also something to discover Digital: A video series on the official website presents selected houses – such as the Konschthal Esch, the slate museum in Obertmartelingen, the Casino Luxembourg, the Thillenvogtei Museum and the new Energy Museum in Beckerich.

Further information, the full program, a list of all participating museums and an overview map can be found at www.luxembourgmuseumdays.lu

Romance and modernity: concert by the Luxembourg Chamber Players

The Luxembourg Chamber Players will play this Sunday under the direction of Thomas Raoult in the Arca in Bartringen. The ensemble, which is regularly visiting there, presents an exciting program between romance and modernity. The evening is opened with the young and energetic Simple Symphony by Benjamin Britten, followed by the famous flute concert in E minor of the Italian opera composer Saverio Mercadante, which is interpreted by soloist Malvina Zajaczkowska. The crowning glory is the passionate symphony No. 7 for string orchestra by Felix Mendelssohn, one of the most important representatives of German romance.

Luxembourg Chamber Players on Sunday at 5 p.m. around Arca, 17 Rue Atert in Bartringen. Admission: 20 euros.