ESTEVAN - Woodlawn Regional Park's seventh annual Festival of Light served as a showcase of the ability of local businesses and organizations to create stunning displays using Christmas lights and other decorations and props.
The event ran from Dec. 17-Jan. 1 at the park's main Souris River campground. Approximately 50 different businesses, service groups and other organizations were involved, which is a similar number of participants as last year.
"The displays were great," said park business manager Maureen Daoust. "It is kind of challenging for people that return year after year for them to come up with new ideas or to see what they're going to do. Some businesses just said 'Reach out to us in 2024' because they were either too busy or they were short staffed or they had some family commitments going on that they weren't able to participate."
The festival always has a few exhibitors that aren't able to return for various reasons, but others step forward to take their place. People are grateful to the park for hosting the event each year.
"Without businesses and service organizations and local groups actually coming down and putting up a display, we wouldn't have an event," said Daoust.
There was not a competitive element or prizes handed out for the top displays. Daoust said it's been too difficult to find impartial adjudicators over the years, so the focus has been on creating a fun event that spreads Christmas cheer.
"It seems like every time we go to any kind of group, they either know people or they're part of a business, and it's too hard for them to collect the data," said Daoust.
It's also difficult for the park to attract attendance. Woodlawn has employed a road counter in the past, but it doesn't always work if it gets packed with snow. But Daoust estimates the number of people who passed through over the course of 16 days would be in the thousands, and many people went through multiple times.
There was a freewill donation box for people to help cover the costs of the Festival of Lights, and many made a contribution, but Daoust doesn't know how much was collected. In the first couple of years, there wasn't a place for donations, and people would ask how they could donate, and some even mailed in their support.
"In a lot of other communities, you're charged by the person or by the vehicle to enter the displays, and we want to able to give back to the community, so even our big kick-off event of Christmas in the Park, people are welcome to come that afternoon and enjoy everything at no cost," she said.
The festival was trimmed by a few days this year, ending on Jan. 1 as opposed to a few days into January, as has been the case in the past. Daoust pointed out it can be tough to find volunteers during the Christmas season, when everybody has family activities and other things to do.
"It's a long stretch for us to man because we have volunteers who go down every night to make sure the timers [worked], everything lit up and everything looks good, and to take the donations from the box," she said.
Since the park has run the festival longer in the past, some people reached out to find out how long the event would be this year.
"It's always nicer when we can go a little bit longer, but at the same time, we felt like it was definitely long enough. It ran for two full weeks."
A lot of exhibitors showed their creativity. Fresh Air Fitness, for example, decorated the playpark area as a winter wonderland, and people could walk through and even take selfies.
Also new for this year was an FM station that was available for people to listen to while in the park. It played a few Christmas songs, as well as greetings from the park and an acknowledgement of sponsors. Next year it might grow to include messages from the participants, Daoust said.
Woodlawn once again launched the Festival of Lights by having a kick-off on Dec. 17 that included a variety of free activities, a fireworks display and the lighting of the displays.
Daoust noted some of the exhibitors have already said they will be part of the festival again in 2024, and she expects the festival will continue to be a popular event in the Estevan area.
