FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM)- Fayetteville's downtown square will be glowing Friday (Nov. 21) as the annual Lights of the Ozarks gets underway.
Fayetteville Parks and Recreation Department workers have put in thousands of hours since October stringing up 450,000 lights around the square.
"It's just magical," said Executive Director of the Fayetteville Advertising & Promotion Commission, Marilyn Heifner. "I mean that's the only thing I can tell you about it, the parade ushers in the holiday season."
Heifner, who's retiring at the beginning of 2015, organized the first Lights of the Ozarks in 1993, and what started as a way to bring revenue into Fayetteville in December, is now a national attraction that's in its 21st year.
"We knew absolutely nothing at first," Heifner said. "We were using fishing poles to cast lights over the trees."
Heifner said Lights of the Ozarks will draw in about 300,000 visitors during the six week period the lights are up on the square.
"There are lights above you, beside you, below you," Heifner said, calling the event a Winter Wonderland. "There's just lights everywhere."
Aaron Dotson of Prairie Grove said he always brings his children to see the lights and their reaction is always priceless.
"They're pretty blown away," he said. "It's hard to explain to them how many there are, for them to wrap their minds around that."
The Lights of the Ozarks will be turned on at 6 p.m. on Friday. A parade, which starts at the Fayetteville Public Library and goes around the square, will follow.
The lights will be on every day from 5 p.m. until midnight until Dec. 31. and new this year, the lights will also be up on Block Street.
For a full list of Lights of the Ozarks events click here.