Northsiders won't need to cross the lake to go to Enlighten this year.
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The after dark festival, which is on in Canberra for its eighth year, will expand to include new lighting installations at the ANU and Canberra City.
Enlighten has also been further expanded in 2018 into the Enlighten Festival which will incorporate the Balloon Spectacular, Symphony in the Park, Lights Canberra Action film festival, Canberra Day celebrations, and finish up with Skyfire.
Running from March 2-18, Enlighten's main action will still be in the parliamentary triangle, with creative projections on the National Gallery, Portrait Gallery, Questacon, Parliament House, Old Parliament House and the National Library.
The City Renewal Authority's chief Malcolm Snow said half a dozen sites in Civic will light up for the first time this year, including Petrie Plaza. The city displays will be less like the projections on the national monuments and more lighting sculptures.
"When you think about other lighting festivals around the world and in Australia, these are festivals which also have a natural fit to the city centre," he said.
"I'd argue we have some great buildings [in the city], perhaps people just walk past them and don't know they're there... So the creative possibilities I'd see and I think our lighting designers would agree, just provides a much bigger canvas for us to do a some really interesting things."
ANU will also light up some of the main buildings on March 8, 9, 10, 15 and 16, with after dark entertainment and fireside talks also on site.
This year's Enlighten theme is 'strange, beautiful and unexpected', and the team from Electric Canvas is again creating the digital projections.
They will light up alongside the Night Noodle Markets, which will again pop up in Reconciliation Place, plus live music and roving entertainers.
A program of free and ticketed events will also run at venues across Canberra, including a masquerade party at Parliament House, dining under the stars at the Arboretum, a design your own coin class at the Mint, night photography workshops at the Botanic Gardens, a night picnic at the zoo, and late night gallery openings.
Ticketed events go on sale from February 1 at enlightencanberra.com.
