The Festival of Lights, billed as “the largest free outdoor drive-thru holiday light display in the region,” will open Friday evening at Phillips Park in Aurora.
The fest will be open from 5 to 9 p.m. every day from Friday through Dec. 29. The annual light show normally closes on Christmas Day, but has been extended due to the late start created by this year’s Thanksgiving holiday being on Nov. 28, the latest in the month it can be celebrated. The event typically begins after Thanksgiving.
The approximately one-mile light show allows visitors to enjoy more than 100 installations depicting ice skating bears, jumping reindeer, a holiday golfer, howling wolves and more, all while sitting in their own vehicles listening to holiday songs on a closed-circuit radio station, organizers said.
Over 50,000 cars went through the site a year ago, according to officials.
Organizers said visitors should register for an entry ticket for this year’s fest by going to www.aurora-il.org/FestivalofLights.
While the display is free, people coming through can donate whatever they want at the end of the event, with the money going to support non-profit organizations and youth programs in the city, officials said.
This is the 18th year of the festival, which was taken over by the city two years ago after being run for years by the Rotary Club of Aurora.
“We are looking forward to it,” said Clayton Muhammad, chief communications and equity officer for the city of Aurora. “Last year we raised over $80,000 for our Lighting the Way youth grant programs here in Aurora. It’s just a nice family tradition. People come out, they jump in their car and it doesn’t matter the temperature.”
Muhammad added that since taking over the event, the city has been “programming the nights.”
“There’s a firefighter night and an Aurora police night and nights with Santa Claus and a larger-than-life LED robot,” he said. “We program some of the nights throughout, which is an added benefit for the kids and the family. We’re seeing the crowds now throughout the week that we used to only see on weekends and we’ve expanded the reach of people coming here from the greater Chicago area.”
On Monday, city crews were putting the finishing touches on displays that started going up a couple of months ago.
Aurora Chief Public Facilities Officer Jim Birchall was on hand at Philips Park Monday and said years ago the city used to help the Rotary Club with the installation of the displays but now handles it on its own.
Work crews, he said “are prioritized as city functions come first and we fill in to do this as a secondary assignment.”
“We started doing this in late September and we did a lot of upgrades as we were doing this. We added some electrical upgrades to give things more power,” he said. “We’re hoping for another big year. It’s all about seeing the kids and the families that come out.”
Diego Villanueva was coordinating one of the final city crews Monday morning and said that “things went a lot smoother this year now that we know how everything goes up.”
“I’ve been involved with this set up all three years,” he said. “When we started we obviously didn’t know where everything goes and we didn’t have a booklet but it was kind of like a puzzle putting everything together, but we’ve got the hang of it now. The Rotary told us where everything was but it was pretty much a memory game. The easy thing is the smaller displays as they don’t go on tubing or racks but the bigger displays mean finding corresponding poles for the bigger items.”
Villanueva said he already can see the benefit on the electrical upgrades and compared testing all the lights “to the Christmas tree from hell.”
“You have to check all the light bulbs – a lot of them were out and you have to take the time to replace them but you can see the difference,” he said.
Juan Leon of Montgomery was putting up one of the last installations and said Monday that his crew “was in good spirits.”
“We’ve got the music going and we’re getting them into the Christmas spirit,” he said. “The easiest part of this is probably bolting everything together and getting it all lit up. The hardest part, I believe, is getting all the parts organized and combining the crews but other than that, once you’re in the rhythm, it goes pretty easy. We try to keep everything together during takedown. Every trailer has its set up and it’s also numbered so when it comes time to empty it we know what’s on it.”
While Villanueva and others wouldn’t call their hours of work a labor of love, they acknowledge there are rewards that come from their many hours of work.
Aurora’s annual Festival of Lights at Phillips Park will begin Friday evening. (City of Aurora)
“This does get you in the Christmas spirit, especially the little kids that come out. You take pride and a lot of our guys bring their kids and family out and show pride in our work,” Villanueva said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
