LIMA —A Lima holiday tradition will return to the Allen County Fairgrounds for the third year beginning Saturday.
Allen County Fairgrounds Promotions and Operations Manager Troy Elwer said that, although he has never experienced Mercy Health Bright Nights as manager, he is confident people will enjoy the new displays that will be shown this year.
“So what people can really get excited about this year is that we’ve actually added a lot of new displays,” said Elwer. “This year, I think we’ve added around 40 new displays, getting us around the 180 mark in total displays. And something new that we tried to do this year to really grow and expand this thing was to get some small business involvement in the surrounding area. So we actually had about 20 small businesses/families in the community that sponsored a display on our light trail this year. That’ll be pretty cool for people to experience some new displays that maybe they haven’t seen in the past couple of years, as well as having a newly revised route to drive through out here.”
Elwer said that because of the new displays the route was altered to be five to 10 minutes longer than last year and that people should get more time to experience the lights.
But all of this promise does not come without hard work.
“There’s a lot of preparation that goes into it,” said Elwer. “We actually have a committee here at the fairgrounds dedicated to Bright Nights. We’ve got about six or seven on our Board of Directors, myself and then a couple of other volunteers. And essentially what we’ve been doing since about the beginning of November is that we’ve had to set out these displays and we’ve had to put them down with fence posts. Also, we actually had to develop a blown-up map that has pinpointed on it the number associated with each light display. That way we know that everything’s going to fit as we worked around. It’s been about a month’s worth of work so far getting all this done, but there’s also a lot of planning that goes into it beforehand, too.”
Elwer said that a majority of the displays are actually up already, but that they still need to run electricity to them. This will involve maintenance and electricians on staff setting up inboxes and extension cords to accommodate the displays in preparation for opening night on Saturday.
All of this hard work is for one specific purpose.
“It’s an opportunity — a cheap opportunity — for a family to kind of get in the holiday spirit, enjoy the holiday and take part in some fellowship,” said Elwer. “And it’s a lot of fun. I know the last couple of years, we’ve got a lot of positive reviews from kids as well as parents and other adults. We have people that will come through two or three times throughout the nights that we’re open just because they love looking at Christmas lights, so any opportunity that we can give to the community at the fairgrounds to really partake in something enjoyable like that, we’re all about.”
Hours for Bright Nights go from 6 to 9 p.m. and are available on all Saturdays and Sundays up to Christmas Eve. Beginning Dec. 9, the event will also be open on Fridays up to Christmas Eve, and it will also be open Dec. 21 and 22.
Admission is $10 per car, and only cash will be accepted. The fair also accepts a $30 package for buses.
The Lima Symphony Orchestra will be heard over the radio performing music from “The Nutcracker Suite” during the event.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
