ESTEVAN — The Woodlawn Regional Park wrapped up their annual Festival of Lights on Jan. 7 after three busy weeks.
The park trails were lit up with over 50 festive displays, and stayed busy throughout the entire season, with thousands of guests visiting the festival. Many participating businesses, organizations and groups were returnees, but a few were new. Many returning members also updated or completely changed their decorations, so there was a lot for the public to see.
Woodlawn business manager Maureen Daoust said the event went well and the only minor challenges they had were posed by weather, as they had to ensure the festival trails were passable after a large snow dump. They also had a couple of issues with some displays when temperatures were changing.
"We did have a few sites that we were having some power issues with. When the temperature does drop, any time there is any kind of melting, if the cords get buried under the snow and get wet, sometimes it trips the GFCI breaker, which poses a problem. So, we faced a few issues with a couple of sites, but it was fine," Daoust said.
The Festival of Lights once again saw a lot of interest and participation.
"Yes, it's work for us as the venue to organize and set up, but without the actual people coming down and setting up their displays we wouldn't even have an event. And it does take a lot of effort and work for a display," Daoust said.
Many guests would visit the festival more than once, and often they'd notice something they hadn't spotted the previous time as displays were detailed and well done. Some represented the businesses or organizations themselves in a festive manner, others were mainly dedicated to holidays.
After two years of a break, Woodlawn was able to bring their Christmas in the Park kick-off to the Festival of Lights back in December, and Daoust said she received nothing but positive feedback.
"I had some general feedback when you run into people, or the people that were at the event would come back and say, this is so awesome that the park could do this, and what a great winter event to come to. The positive feedback was that they're happy," Daoust said.
She also noted that anyone willing to participate in the next Festival of Lights can reach out to her at any time. She collects contact information throughout the year and closer to the holiday season reaches out to everyone interested to arrange for further steps to have another bright, interesting and exciting event.
"It is probably the cheapest form of advertising that people can find because we do have so many visitors that come. So, it is definitely a good way to be noticed in your community. [And everyone I talk to says] it brings them lots of joy, they're happy to come down and happy that they can have something to do in the evening," Daoust shared.
The park had its road counter set up to track the traffic during the event. The data on how many vehicles went through during the festival wasn't immediately available, but with steady traffic flow throughout all three weeks, it would be comparable to previous years when the park saw about 3,000 guests coming to see the displays.
Daoust also thanked everyone involved with the latest event.
"A shout out to all the businesses, organizations and groups that do participate. We couldn't host it without them taking the time to decorate a site. And just thanks for our volunteers and our sponsors for Christmas in the Park and Festival of Lights," Daoust said.
