FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The 30th annual Lights of the Ozarks kicks off Friday, Nov. 17, at 6 p.m. with their "lighting night" at Fayetteville Square.
Fayetteville flips the switch on the holiday season with a parade, food, music, and a special visitor from the North Pole at the Lights of the Ozarks.
“Everybody feels like Lights of the Ozarks is theirs, and it is," Experience Fayetteville CEO Molly Rawn said. "I really like that, and it's a great way to kick off the holiday season and get everybody in the holiday spirit. The community has really embraced it and the sense of ownership that so many people have for Lights of the Ozarks. It is a collaborative effort.
Every year, Fayetteville Parks and Recreation starts prepping for this in early summer. It takes six weeks to put all the lights up starting in October. They spend over 3,000 hours decking out the square in over 500,000 lights.
“On lighting night, when you have a couple 1000 people and you hear the oohs and ahhs, it's rewarding," Byron Humphry, parks operations director for the City of Fayetteville, said.
A new addition to this year's festivities is Open Streets to the Square. On the first four Fridays, the city will close roads around the square, allowing pedestrians to only walkthrough.
“The crowds love to come. We've got lines of cars driving the square, we've got people all on the sidewalks and everything,” Kelly Rich, executive director for Downtown Fayetteville Coalition. “We’re excited for everyone to come and walk the streets and shop our local businesses. The businesses will be staying open later. Grab some dinner."
Rich said it's important for those local businesses to get that foot traffic during the holiday season.
“Just to come and see what makes Fayetteville so special, and a lot of it is due to our downtown businesses," Rich said.
The lights will be on every day until the end of December, beginning at 5:00 p.m. and turning off at 1:00 a.m. They are free and open to the public.
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