WILL LIGHTS DIM?
Event was scaled back this year due to COVID-19
The Ramirez family takes in the Glendale Glitters lights. The event was scaled back this year and some say it should be ended.
Glendale Glitters will be significantly scaled back this year to cut down on big crowds during the COVID-19 pandemic, but some wonder if the changes signal a new normal for the Phoenix-area tradition that has been on and off the chopping block in recent years.
The holiday celebration, in its 27th year, will run from 5 to 10 nightly umtil Jan. 9, but will only feature its signature holiday lights.
This year’s Glendale Glitters will include none of the usual performances or street vendors in downtown’s Murphy Park.
The decision came as Mayor Jerry Weiers also canceled the area’s annual Hometown Christmas Parade.
The possibility of ending Glendale Glitters altogether has lingered for years.
The idea has been met with mixed reactions from downtown business owners and the city’s elected leaders.
City Manager Kevin Phelps proposed plans a couple of years ago to revitalize downtown Glendale, in part by canceling Glendale Glitters in favor of yearround events.
The proposal was met with resistance and city leaders backed off the plans. But they did cut the festival’s programming last year, citing financial constraints.
Downtown business owners actually benefited from the lack of performances and street vendors, Phelps said.
“The merchants actually did exceedingly well on those weekends in December because there was still a lot of (families) that came downtown to enjoy the lights,” he said. “They went into one of the restaurants rather than get food from a vendor.”
While the festival is still a go for this year, leaders haven’t ruled out the possibility of ending Glendale Glitters in the future.
What’s different this year?
This year, Glitters will only feature holiday lights, like most of last year’s celebration.
The annual celebration started in 1993 with 300,000 lights lining the trees in Murphy Park. It’s since grown into something much larger, making use of the area’s small-town atmosphere and filling it with live performances and street vendors beneath the now 1.7 million lights.
Downtown businesses still will be open, but the regular festivities have been called off to cut down on crowd sizes.
“I would prefer, more than anything, just turn the lights on and let people show up,” Weiers said at an October City Council workshop meeting. “We don’t want to discourage people from coming out. We just don’t want the mass crowds.”
The decision was made before Arizona’s number of confirmed COVID-19 cases sharply increased in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. The state on Thursday reported more than 4,000 new cases for the first time since midJuly, when Arizona was grappling with one of the most severe coronavirus outbreaks in the U.S.
Businesses see an opportunity
While cars zip along Glendale Avenue, passing through downtown on the way to Phoenix or Peoria, downtown can appear quiet during the middle of the day.
Despite the cluster of restaurants and shops downtown, the midday lunch rush can seem slow-going on a typical weekday. Events such as Glitters are typically a boon to downtown businesses, and business owners say this year could bring even more business as they won’t have to compete with street vendors who typically set up for Glitters around Murphy Park.
Justin Piazza, the owner of La Piazza Al Forno on Glendale Avenue, has mixed feelings about this year’s scaled-back festivities. If anything, it likely will draw more people into his restaurant, he said.
“I think we’ll be busy because now, people won’t have any place to eat out there,” he said.
Piazza’s restaurant is a draw for the area. It has been open for about 13 years and was featured on Guy Fieri’s TV
show, “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” He doesn’t think his business will do any worse during the holiday season than it already has throughout the pandemic.
However, Piazza thinks it’s important that the city will still have holiday lights to celebrate the season. He said that after the year everyone has been through, the event will serve as a bright spot for residents and visitors. Moving forward, he said the city should capitalize on Murphy Park downtown to host other events beyond Glitters once the pandemic is over.
“If they killed Glendale Glitters, we’re going to be left with a lot of shops that are part-time only,” he said. “You definitely have to invest in the area or it’s going to die.”
Some business owners new to the area are optimistic that this holiday season will bring good business since there won’t be any street vendors.
Lynnette Frederick, co-owner of the downtown Glendale coffee shop the Black Sheep, said she thinks that a scaled-down Glendale Glitters event will be better for local businesses. The lack of vendors will help push visitors to downtown restaurants and stores, she said.
Frederick and her husband, Daniel, opened the coffee shop during the pandemic. She said she’s interested to see what business will be like during their first holiday season downtown since Glendale Glitters is the city’s most highprofile event.
‘COVID was a good excuse’
When plans were first unveiled to end Glendale Glitters, some business owners and residents pushed back.
Some see the COVID-19 pandemic as “a good excuse” for city leaders to get the ball rolling on ending the well-known celebration.
Debbie Chmidling, the owner of Glendale’s Crescent Moon Emporium, said that every small-business owner in downtown Glendale depends on the activities and events that the city promotes.
“It’s really cost us to have to shutdown,” Chmidling said. “If you drive around here, there’s a lot of shops that have literally went out of business. Glendale Glitters definitely helps support the small businesses.”
She said Glitters has always been a draw for her business; at times she’s seen more than 500 people standing around outside her shop.
Chmidling said she plans to have drummers and belly dancers perform outside of her store to help draw people into the shop.
She disagrees with the idea of ending the event for good.
“It’s almost like they had been planning this and COVID was a good excuse,” she said. “So many people still come to Old Town Glendale because they want to look at the mom-and-pop shops and the antique shops … it kind of has that old-town love.”
feeling that people
Could this year be Glendale Glitters’ last?
City leaders aren’t scrapping the idea of doing away with Glitters.
Eventually, they want to take the money Glendale spends on Glitters and instead spend it on year-round events in the area. But that won’t happen overnight, they say.
“What we’re trying to accomplish is to have visitors in our city every weekend, not just two to three times a year,” Weiers said. “If we can put the same amount of money, or less money, to have 50 events a year instead of three events a year, I think it represents our city much better.”
While city leaders explore options for the future of downtown Glendale, and Glitters, Weiers said it’s important to keep in mind that, at this point, leaders don’t know for sure if they will end Glitters, keep it going as it has been or experiment with scaling it back. Those decisions will come as the City Council continues to discuss it in the future, he said.
Phelps, the city manager, said he would like to see downtown pivot away from a handful of annual events, like Glendale Glitters, and move to a string of year-round events, like concerts and performances at the amphitheater outside City Hall.
The city spends about $1.2 million each year to promote downtown Glendale and put on Glendale Glitters, Phelps said. The area can produce around $400,000 in sales tax revenue, he said.
“This really isn’t a good economic development strategy,” he said.
Phelps said he might include ideas for revitalizing downtown in his proposed budget for next fiscal year, which starts in July, but wants to see support from downtown merchants and the City Council before doing anything that would scrap Glitters.
“Based on some feedback that I’ve received from some of the downtown stakeholders and from some of the council members, I won’t be surprised if in my budget proposal for next year that we bring this issue back up,” Phelps said. “We need to get the merchants on board … until such time that the merchants or the council want to change it, we’ll just maintain the status quo.”