The present disclosure is generally directed to an interior lighting system for an aircraft, in which individual lighting elements (or groups of lighting elements) can be controlled to emit light of various colors and brightness according to the position of a cart, such as a galley cart. According to an embodiment, a processor that controls the system receives signals from one or more sensors around the aircraft cabin (e.g., radio frequency identification (“RFID”) readers or optical scanners) that indicate the current position of the cart (e.g., by detecting an RFID tag on the cart) and, based on the position of the cart, sends commands to the various lighting elements around the cabin to execute a lighting scene (e.g., gradually raise the lights as the cart comes through).