Displays, fireworks light up Falls
A blast of brightness kicked off the annual Winter Festival of Lights Saturday in Niagara Falls.
With an enthusiastic crowd gathered at the stage in Queen Victoria Park, a ceremonial flick of a switch fired up more than two million lights all along the Niagara Parkway and Fallsview areas.
The days of just enjoying the lighted route from inside a warm car or van are long past.
“People want an experience. They want the wow factor, right?” said festival executive director Tina Myers.
The festival runs through the end of January around Dufferin Islands, the parkway near the falls, in the Fallsview area, Clifton Hill and Lundy’s Lane.
The key word this year is interactive.
“From Amsterdam, we have the spectacular Light Piano 2.0 — you play the keyboard and in front of you, a symphony of lights will come together with each key,” said Myers.
“It’s very interactive, we wanted to get people out of their cars and moving around the destination.”
She estimated there are 15 new illuminations throughout the route.
At the Floral Showhouse near Table Rock is the Flower from the Universe — a lighting display “that is interactive with the colour of people’s clothing,” Myers said.
“If I’m wearing red and you’re wearing blue, it will actually change colours on either side. It’s a beautiful exhibit done by an artist from the Netherlands.”
Returning this year is Prismatica, described as a two-metre field of 25 colourful, lighted prisms that pivot on their base. It will arrive Nov. 30 at Scotiabank Convention Centre on Stanley Avenue.
That, and the lighted 25.2-metre-long circular Passage in the Fallsview district are relative newcomers to the festival “but this year we’ve introduced even more of these art installations,” said Myers.
“They’ve been a great addition to the festival, we’re getting people from all over the world commenting and wanting to visit.”
Also new is the Cascades of Fire international fireworks exhibition over the falls that runs for two weekends — Nov. 9, 10 and 11 and Nov. 16, 17 and 18.
Pyrotechnics teams from Fin-
land, Brazil, China, Vietnam, Italy and Canada will stage their shows each night, “it will be literally 18 minutes long synchronized to music and will span over 1,500 feet and 1,200 feet high.”
“So this is going to be something that is so spectacular, something Niagara has never seen before. It will be fired off the international control dam (above the falls) and the best viewing spots are about two kilometres away.”
Last year’s festival drew 1.6 million visitors and generated a $56-million economic impact, according to festival of lights surveys and studies.
This is the final year that the city of Niagara Falls will provide funding to the festival. The 2019 festival will be fully funded by sponsors and the local tourism industry.
Hydro is provided free by the festival sponsor, Ontario Power Generation, but even so the use of LED lights has brought that cost down over the years. The next step is more use of solar power.
“That’s more because the power is always a hard thing to find in parks, you’re looking for ways to illuminate or energize different things and you may not have access to power,” said Myers.
“So solar is something we’re definitely investigating.”
A complete description of events and lighting displays is at the festival’s website, www.wfol.com.