Bright Lights Windsor to get double the dazzle
Bright Lights Windsor promises to be twice as spectacular in its second year.
When it was first announced in August of 2017, the city planned to spend $3 million lighting up Jackson Park. But then a catastrophic deluge of rain happened the next day, flooding 6,000 homes. Acknowledging the bad optics of spending so much to purchase holiday lights when sewers needed fixing, the city cut the budget in half to $1.5 million, with the plan to spend the remaining $1.5 million this year.
Despite the cutback, the inaugural Bright Lights Windsor was regarded as a dazzling success, with 60,000 attending the free event over a one-month period over the holidays.
Now, the city is spending the remaining $1.5 million on more lights and displays. Jan Wilson, the city ’s corporate leader of parks, recreation, culture and facilities, said the result will be a big expansion of last year’s Bright Lights. “That’s what we’re hoping for,” she said Tuesday. She said the footprint of Bright Lights will be tripled and the number of lighted trees will be doubled to 200. There will be added features including premier light displays, a children’s area with an interactive feature, and additional opportunities for people to take impressive selfies and family photos.
“We’ve been very busy purchasing additional displays, so you will notice quite a significant increase for this year,” Wilson said. Bright Lights kicks off Friday, Dec. 7 and runs to Jan. 6. While last year there were a couple of food trucks in the parking lot, this year will feature a “holiday vendors market,” with local craftspeople, artisans and food vendor. Improvements to the park this year included converting many paths from gravel to pavement, meaning people will have an easier time walking around the displays, which will be spread out through a larger area of the park. More details about the features will be announced in the coming weeks, said Wilson.
On Monday night, council approved awarding the $306,000 job of setting up and tearing down the light displays to Tucker Electric. There will be periodic closures of the parking lot next to the Queen Elizabeth II Sunken Gardens, including this week, to allow for offloading of equipment. Wilson said the installation work will be done in phases to minimize the time the sections of the park will be shut off to the public.