By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — The annual Festival of Lights drew more than 105,000 people to Sinnissippi Park this season, a figure that’s just shy of last year’s record attendance.
The holiday lights display concluded this season’s run with 105,150 visits, according to the civic committee that runs the event. The record was set last year with 105,453 visits. It approached the record thanks to staying open for additional days after fierce winter weather spoiled some of what are typically the busiest nights of the year.
“We are pleased to announce that even though Mother Nature threw us some heavy curve balls this year, we were still able to keep our momentum and not have a considerable drop in attendance,” the committee said in an email to supporters and sponsors. “We are so happy that we can sustain these high numbers compared to where we were after the great redo of the Festival of Lights starting in the 2017/2018 seasons.”
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The display was shut down for one night during the lead up to Christmas, and the closure happened on what’s typically one of the event’s busiest nights, organizers said. The volunteer crew also dealt with wind chills that were in the double digits below zero on other traditionally busy nights.
“Because of that, we decided to stay open the week after Christmas leading up to New Years Eve (our final night),” the committee wrote. “This helped make up all the attendance we would have lost with those bad weather days.”
It costs roughly $30,000 to run the Festival of Lights, according to Ted O’Donnell, co-chairman of the committee. That’s all paid for by donations and sponsorships. No tax dollars are used.
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The committee also uses donations to fund the annual Fourth of July fireworks show, which can cost up to $90,000.
But this year donations were down, meaning sponsorship rates will need to increase next year in order to make up for the loss, the committee said.
“Our attendance is high but the donation levels have had a sharp drop off,” the committee said in an email. “Most drive-thru events that don’t charge can see a car average of $2-$3 a car in donations. We dropped all the way down to $0.86 average a car this year.”
To donate to the Festival of Lights or the Fourth of July display, you can go HERE.
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas.