Over Viðey island in Reykjavík's harbour, a column of light is once again climbing into the night sky. The Imagine Peace Tower — Yoko Ono's tribute to John Lennon — was switched on for the twentieth time this week, marking two decades since it first lit up in 2007.
The anniversary ceremony was deliberately low-key: singer Árný Margrét performed, and Reykjavík's mayor Hildur Björnsdóttir addressed the crowd gathered for the occasion. The event fell on October 9, Lennon's birthday, which is when the tower is switched on every year. From now, the beam will burn nightly until January 1, 2027.
The tower itself is more than a light show. The beam rises from a wishing well carved with the words "Imagine Peace" in 24 languages, a nod to the song that made Lennon's name as a solo peace icon. Ono conceived the work as a beacon for world peace and dedicated it to her late husband, whose birthday and whose memory bookend the annual illumination season each winter.
For travellers, this is one of Reykjavík's most distinctive seasonal sights. The tower sits on Viðey, a small, car-free island in Kollafjörður bay reached by a short ferry ride from the Old Harbour, and on clear winter nights the beam is visible from much of the city — a vertical searchlight that becomes the focal point of the skyline after dark. It also overlaps neatly with the northern lights season, so a winter trip to Reykjavík can combine two very different kinds of sky spectacle.
Why it matters: the tower's illumination window — early October to New Year's Day — doubles as a ready-made reason to plan a Reykjavík winter break. Anyone visiting the Icelandic capital between Lennon's birthday and Christmas can catch it, and the anniversary year adds a bit of extra occasion to the 2026 season. The ferry crossing takes only minutes, and the island itself offers walking paths, birdlife in milder months and quiet views back across the water to the city.
If you're in town for the tower, time your visit for the evening, dress for Atlantic wind off the water, and check ferry schedules in advance since winter crossings run less frequently than in summer. Then look up: when conditions are right, the beam cuts through cloud cover in a way photos rarely do justice to.
