Gardens to shut off lights for holiday because of covid-19

Daytime festival planned instead

HOT SPRINGS — Social-distancing requirements forced by the coronavirus pandemic have led Garvan Woodland Gardens to cancel its annual Holiday Lights show, which drew tens of thousands of visitors last year, and replace it with a new daytime Winter Garden Festival.

Bob Bledsoe, executive director of the botanical garden, told The Sentinel-Record on Thursday that the No. 1 reason for the change was the “safety and security of our patrons and of our staff.”

“In light of the pandemic of 2020 and the need to provide an experience that allows for social distancing, it became obvious that the creation of a new daytime Winter Garden Festival would meet our goals of providing an event in which families could celebrate the winter holiday season with us just as in past years, yet in much safer circumstances,” Bledsoe said in a statement Thursday.

“We’re doing a day show [instead] of a night show,” Bledsoe said, noting that visitors will be able to access more of the garden than Holiday Lights normally allows. “The whole garden’s open, not just a limited 5 acres.”

Bledsoe said lights will still be put up, but not to the extent of Holiday Lights. For example, he said, trees won’t be wrapped this year.

Favorite features from Holiday Lights, including the 50-foot Rose Tree, a Holiday Train Garden, James the Train, and the frozen light world will be “re-imagined as daytime exhibits,” the release said.

“An added treat for visitors includes light art installations created by interior design students from the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas that will capture the beauty of the dusk in the Gardens,” the release said.

Since the festival will be held during daytime hours, areas previously inaccessible during Holiday Lights will be open, including the Evans Children’s Adventure Garden, the Evans Tree House, the Hixson Nature Preserve, and the Perry Wildflower Overlook.

“We’re excited to be able to stay open,” Bledsoe said.

Bledsoe said officials do not know if the Winter Garden Festival will continue in the future. He said planners are still coming up with ideas for the festival, so “the details will come later.”

The annual Holiday Lights is a large draw for locals and tourists. Last year, Bledsoe said, seven out of the first 18 nights of the event set attendance records, and attendance was up 20% over 2018.

From Nov. 23 through Dec. 19, the garden had around 40,000 visitors. The attendance was so large in 2019 that the garden had to set a capacity cap. It has not yet been determined if there will be a capacity limit this year, Bledsoe said.

The Winter Garden Festival will begin Nov. 21 and run through Dec. 31. It will be closed Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.

Daily opening hours are yet to be determined, but the show will end by 6 p.m. each day, the release said.