SUNY Potsdam Welcomes Campus & Community to Celebrate Launch of Deeply Rooted, Future Focused Campaign with Special Festival of Lights Event
SUNY Potsdam will bring back its biggest LoKo Arts Festival of Lights yet, for the culmination of the public launch of Deeply Rooted, Future Focused: The Campaign for Potsdam.
Free and open to all, the LoKo Arts Festival of Lights, one of SUNY Potsdam’s largest community celebrations, will bring live music, illuminated art, hands-on activities and a spectacular drone show to the Academic Quad as the culminating public event of the launch of Deeply Rooted, Future Focused: The Campaign for Potsdam.
The special edition of the LoKo Arts Festival of Lights will be held on Saturday, Oct. 24, starting at 6 p.m., in the Academic Quad.
Learn more & RSVP for free: Festival of Lights at SUNY Potsdam
“We’re thrilled to bring back the Festival of Lights, a beloved LoKo Arts event that creates the kind of high-impact, highly visible arts experience that brings our campus and community together,” said Haley Billings ’13 & ’26, LoKo Arts coordinator. “As we celebrate the launch of Deeply Rooted, Future Focused: The Campaign for Potsdam, it feels especially meaningful to invite the North Country community onto campus and showcase what makes SUNY Potsdam so special: a place that values creativity and understands the importance of the community we’re fortunate to be part of.”
Dancers in glowing wings will float through the crowds at the LoKo Arts Festival of Lights at SUNY Potsdam. Guests can enjoy glow-in-the-dark mini golf, live music by SFM, food, drinks, glowing activities and much more.
For the evening, Satterlee Hall, the Academic Quad and Minerva Plaza will all be transformed into a connected landscape of light, with architectural uplighting, illuminated trees and glowing art installations throughout the heart of campus. The large-scale transformation will create a dramatic setting for the celebration and invite guests to experience SUNY Potsdam in an entirely new way.
Local favorite rock cover band SFM, featuring Benjamin Todd, Marcus Alvarez, Matt Gayle ’06 and Ben Lacy, will provide the soundtrack for the evening, performing live as the crowd gathers for the Festival’s signature finale.
At 8 p.m., guests will be invited to look to the skies for a spectacular drone show, set to music from the Crane School of Music archives, bringing together the College’s legacy, history and future in one shared experience.
Food and drinks will be available for purchase, including a cash bar, located in a warming room in the Gibson Gallery. LoKo Arts and Festival of Lights merchandise will also be on sale to commemorate the occasion.
Guests are invited to bring camp chairs or picnic blankets to spread out and enjoy the show and settle in for the big drone finale.
Planning to attend? Let us know by RSVP’ing online here.
Note: Registration is encouraged, but not required. Guests are welcome to simply show up and enjoy the Festival!
The Festival will also showcase original light-based artwork by artists from across the region. Featured installations include Lainie L. Calhoun-Bouchey’s “Finding Your Crowd: 3D Edition,” an immersive collection of illuminated jellyfish suspended throughout the landscape; Sherry Barkley’s “Glass Blooms,” created from illuminated repurposed glass, and Laura Garnero’s “Girlypop,” a glowing interactive installation that invites visitors inside a color-saturated world of light, reflection and play.
Artist Liza Paige ’12 will debut “Night Vision,” an immersive installation that transforms an upcycled desk scene into a continuous illuminated line drawing and interactive photo experience.
Liza Paige sits in her ‘2D Dorm Room,’ which she created for the 2024 LoKo Festival of Arts.
SLC Arts, represented by Erica Kelso, will also contribute a featured art installation.
Young artists will have a place in the Festival as well. Participants in the North Country Children’s Museum’s Glow-in-the-Dark Art Program are creating a collaborative public artwork for the event. Throughout the program, children in Grades K–5 explore glow-in-the-dark, UV and LED art, plus projections, holograms and glow painting, before bringing their work together for display on the SUNY Potsdam campus.
There will be plenty to do beyond viewing the installations. Guests can play Glocade glow-in-the-dark mini-golf, stop by the LoKo Arts Tent to use glowsticks and connectors to create endless illuminated designs, pick up free light-up swag, and encounter dancers in glowing wings moving throughout the crowd and helping bring the Festival atmosphere to life.
The event is also a centerpiece of LoKo Arts’ fifteenth anniversary year, celebrated under the 2026–27 theme, “Illumination.” The theme reflects the power of the arts to reveal new ideas, create connection and transform shared experiences.
This LoKo Arts project is made possible by the generosity and artistic vision of Kathryn (Kofoed) ’54 and Donald Lougheed (Hon. ’54).
Free parking is available in Lots 1, 11 & 12 for this event. To view the campus map, visit potsdam.edu/admissions/visit/maps.
About LoKo Arts:
Founded in 2012, LoKo Arts is SUNY Potsdam’s year-round arts initiative, bringing bold visual, performing, literary and interdisciplinary arts experiences to campus and the North Country through artist residencies, performances, exhibitions, workshops, educational outreach and community collaborations. Each year, programming culminates in the LoKo Arts Festival, a multi-day celebration of creativity and connection. The 2026–27 academic year marks LoKo Arts’ fifteenth anniversary, celebrated through the theme “Illumination,” with the 2027 Festival set to take place from April 27 through May 2, 2027.
All LoKo Arts programs and events are free and open to the public. LoKo Arts is made possible through the generosity and artistic vision of Kathryn (Kofoed) ’54 and Donald Lougheed (Hon. ’54). To learn more, visit www.potsdam.edu/loko.
About the Potsdam College Foundation:
Established in 1968, the Potsdam College Foundation is a nonprofit corporation charged with receiving gifts on behalf of SUNY Potsdam and stewarding the continued growth of private giving in support of the College. Its mission is to ensure a quality future for the College and its people by encouraging gifts of all types and stewarding endowments to support scholarships and campus programs. For more information, visit www.potsdam.edu/giving/pcf.
About SUNY Potsdam:
Founded in 1816, The State University of New York at Potsdam is one of America’s first 50 colleges—and the oldest institution within SUNY. Now in its third century, SUNY Potsdam is distinguished by a legacy of pioneering programs and educational excellence. The College currently enrolls approximately 2,500 undergraduate and graduate students. Home to the world-renowned Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam is known for its challenging liberal arts and sciences core, distinction in teacher training and culture of creativity. To learn more, visit www.potsdam.edu.
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