Bright Nights will return to the Allen County Fairgrounds this Friday.
LIMA — Mercy Health Bright Nights will return for its fourth year this Friday, lighting up the night at the Allen County Fairgrounds.
The Lima holiday tradition featuring over 200 LED Christmas light displays will run weekends through the holiday season from 6 to 9 p.m. each night.
“It’s really taken off here in the last couple of years in terms of growth and expansion,” Fairgrounds Promotions and Operations Manager Troy Elwer said. “Our route is just under a mile long now so we feel like we have a really nice diverse set of displays that can pique the interest of anybody in the community that’s looking for a nice cheap form of entertainment to bring the family out for the holiday season.”
Mercy Health President Ronda Lehman said that the healthcare provider is excited to once again sponsor the event.
“We are really looking forward to the partnership again this year,” she said. “It’s something that we started during the pandemic because we wanted to create a holiday experience that was safe and available for everyone. And we are just thrilled to see how the communities embrace it and how it has grown in the last several years.”
To get to 200 displays, the fairgrounds have added around 15 new displays to the route, but there are a few other new additions.
“We’ve been in partnership with the Lima Symphony Orchestra for people to listen to music from ‘The Nutcracker’ over the radio as they drive through the route,” Elwer said. “But this year, we’re putting a twist on it. The symphony has gotten us some new music to be played, including ‘Sleigh Ride’, ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ and some other Christmas mashups so that will be a neat little improvement for people to look forward to this year.”
This event also would not be possible without heavy effort from fairground staff.
“In terms of putting the event together, a lot of credit and thanks go to our maintenance staff and the other fair employees and directors for putting the displays up and wiring them all in,” Elwer added. “But we have a lot of sponsors that back this event and helped us grow and expand it, as well as small businesses in the community that sponsor specific displays throughout the route.”
“I think it’s exciting to see the growth and I would add that it brings people into Lima that maybe wouldn’t have otherwise come to see what wonderful fairgrounds they have,” Lehman said. “There are so many activities that happen at the fairgrounds throughout the year beyond the fair and Bright Nights is just one of the many things that they do as a community. We also are really appreciative of the opportunity to provide this as a gift for our associates.”
Putting on the event means a lot to the fairgrounds in that vein.
“We look at this event as a tradition that’s now established as a gift to the community for the general public to enjoy,” Elwer said. “We’re obviously known for the fair, but we tried to develop an event that is for a more non-traditional time of year when people aren’t thinking about the fairgrounds. And we have a really nice facility and infrastructure with lots of space to utilize.”
But above all, Elwer said that he just hopes visitors get a chance to take in the experience.
“I would encourage you to take the opportunity to come through the route if you haven’t yet because the odds are, you are going to enjoy it and we’re always open to feedback,” he said. “I really hope that people enjoy the event and hopefully we get some snow this year because that tends to make the experience all around better. But this really is an event that has been great for us and we’re really excited about the future of this event next year.”
For more information on this year’s Mercy Health Bright Nights, visit the Allen County Fairgrounds website.
The event is open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday through Dec. 24, except for Dec. 1 and Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 20 and 21.
Tickets are $10 per vehicle with cash only at the gate or the fairgrounds administration office.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
