Stay informed with the LNN Daily Newsletter

Bright Lights Festival expanding to two days

Nov 7, 2017 | 11:52 AM

LETHBRIDGE – The snow around the city over the last few days has it feeling like winter, and in a few weeks the 17th Annual Bright Lights Festival will kick off the holiday shopping season in downtown Lethbridge.

The festival has been expanded to a two-day event this year, on Friday, Nov. 17 and Saturday, Nov. 18, with even more family-oriented activities than previous years.

Executive Director of Downtown Lethbridge BRZ, Ted Stilson, says for the past 16 years they’ve only had the Friday evening, but with help from their two major sponsors this year they’ve been able to expand.

“Thanks to VisitLethbridge.com and Heart of Our City, along with some of our other business partners stepping up this year, we’re going to be bringing in some other things for Saturday.”

The weekend activities will kick-off on Friday evening shortly after the arrival of Santa at 6:30 p.m. in Galt Gardens Park. A variety of Classic Christmas movies will be shown from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

The traditional hayrides, hot chocolate, hot apple cider, coffee, and popcorn will be available free-of-charge thanks to some downtown businesses and other event partners.

New to the festival will be the Solar Flare public art exhibit. The London Road Neighbourhood Association will be on hand once again to sell hot dogs, hamburgers and to take donations for the Lethbridge Shelter & Resource Centre Soup Kitchen.

Stilson says Saturday’s activities will start at noon and include a few new events.

“We have a professional ice carver coming in, we’ve got Santa’s reindeer paddock for the kids, and we’ll be showing full length Christmas movies, including Elf and Home Alone, as well along with hot chocolate and popcorn,” Stilson said.

Midnight Madness will also be taking place in conjunction with the Bright Lights Festival. Participating businesses will be providing Midnight Madness Special and keeping their doors open late into the evening. Stilson says the festival will help show off Galt Gardens, and the downtown, as the holiday shopping season gets into full gear.

“This year we’re going to be doing a bingo card, which will encourage people to spend their money locally downtown with a chance to win downtown bucks that can be used at different stores, and a grand prize of $800,” Stilson continued. “We’ve added a few new things, a few new twists and it’s all in an effort to try to encourage people to shop local this holiday season. Whether that’s downtown or throughout Lethbridge, it’s important to keep money local because that benefits everyone.”

That’s an opinion shared by George Kuhl, the Downtown Revitalization Manager, who says it’s a really welcome change to have the festival run for two days.

“We’ve been hoping for a number of years that it could expand because there’s a lot of effort that goes into organizing it. Having another sponsor or two come along really makes that a lot more feasible and I think the community on a Saturday has a lot more time to spread out and enjoy what the downtown has to offer as a result,” Kuhl said.

It’s been a consistent movement over the past few years by Downtown Revitalization to push local businesses in the downtown for people to shop, and Kuhl believes they’ve been pretty successful.

“Last year with the Heart of Our City activity grant, the funding source that we make available to entities within the community, we had close to 50,000 people come out to downtown events. So we know that it does make a difference, and you feel and see the vitality of downtown.”

Every holiday season people flock to the brand name stores, and more and more people are turning to online sources like Amazon as a way to do their holiday shopping.

Kuhl believes that events like the Bright Lights Festival bring out more people who are starting to explore downtown more than they did before.

“They’re starting to realize that there’s a lot of hidden treasures here. The downtown is a unique part of any city because it’s different everywhere you go,” Kuhl continued. “It’s a place that shows off the individuality of your city, which is the case here in Lethbridge, and when people are spending money locally it really benefits everyone