Regardless of rain and snow, another successful Lights On Stratford is in the books

The SHROOMS light display lit up Tom Patterson Island during Lights On Stratford.

With the fifth season of Lights On Stratford now in the books, organizers are thrilled with both the number of people who came out to see the lights and the number of local businesses and community organizations that embraced this year’s winter-lights festival.

This year’s lights festival ran Thursday through Sunday starting on Dec. 13, 2024, and it officially wrapped up on Jan. 19. Despite a mix of weather ranging from rain and warmer temperatures to snow and frigid cold, Destination Stratford executive director Zac Gribble said the festival achieved the goal set by organizers back when it was first launched at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

“We’re still collecting some information as far as numbers from (last weekend), but I can tell you this has been the highest attendance ever across our five annual festivals,” Gribble said. “We’re really thrilled with how this festival performed in terms of getting our community out in a very cold, snowy, deep, dark winter, and also attracting people from further afield to come and celebrate Stratford.”

When it first started, the goal of Lights On Stratford was to give locals and visitors alike a reason to spend time in downtown Stratford, spending money at local shops, cafés and restaurants at a time of year previously considered Stratford’s off-season, after the theatre season is over.

This year, Gribble said the festival accomplished that goal in spades thanks, in part, to the attention-grabbing, interactive and creative light displays. Gribble said those who attended the festival enjoyed Emergence by This Is Loop and STARGATE by Chalk River Labs – the displays in Market Square – as well as the Trumpet Flowers and SHROOMS displays on Tom Patterson Island.

“One of the highlights for me personally … is how much community engagement and partnership is happening now,” Gribble said.

“I contrast that to the earlier festivals when we were just getting going. There wasn’t a lot of additional, cultural activity happening. This year, there was so much from pop-ups all over town to film festivals to concerts at the Tom Patterson Theatre, partnerships with the Stratford Festival and Stratford Summer Music, and glow-in-the-dark curling at the Stratford Country Club. There was just so much happening in and around the community during Lights On Stratford, which is really important for us in terms of how we intentionally develop this festival and what it can do for the community as it moves forward and continues to grow.”

From opportunities for related experiences at the Stratford Public Library and University of Waterloo Stratford to silent discos, the City of Stratford’s roving light displays/hop-on hop-off shuttle service and the NYX: Electronic Drone Choir concert at the Tom Patterson Theatre, Gribble said there was so much for attendees to enjoy beyond seeing the light displays.

While some may not like this year’s $600,000 budget for the festival, Gribble remains resolute in his opinion that the development of Lights On Stratford is crucial to supporting the local economy when the Stratford Festival is not in season.

“This year, I think we’ve proven this is something that can continue to grow, continue to expand and, with this much community support, I feel like we’re in a really good position to do that,” he said.