The Lights of Wonder display at Centennial Square has proved so popular that the Downtown Victoria Business Association plans to keep the free exhibit open on New Year’s Eve.
“Originally it was not going to be [open] on New Year’s Eve,” Jeff Bray, executive director of the DVBA, said Friday. “But, again, the response has been so great. We’re just putting together staff rosters and making sure we’ve got volunteers.
“We’ll certainly make that announcement very shortly.”
Late Friday, the DVBA’s website said Lights of Wonder would be open from 4 p.m. Dec. 31 to 12:30 a.m. Jan. 1.
The association faced criticism on social media for closing the light display on Christmas Day. Critics cited DVBA promotions saying the lights would be on from late afternoon into the night from Dec. 20 to Jan. 4.
But Bray said it was always the plan to give workers that evening off to spend with family and friends.
“I wasn’t going to ask staff and volunteers to miss their holiday supper,” Bray said.
Given the exhibit’s surging popularity, the association did consider revising its plan and turning on the lights anyway.
“But we have had some issues — even with staff and volunteers [there] — with people climbing through the displays just to get the right picture and doing a little bit of damage,” he said. “We just felt from . . . a public safety [perspective], that we couldn’t put them on and leave them relatively unattended.
“It’s certainly something we’ll be looking at for next year, for sure. I mean, your first year, you don’t quite know what to expect. It’s become hugely popular.”
Thousands of people have visited the free exhibit since it opened Dec. 20 after a one-week delay caused by a need for more setup time.
“We’re very, very happy with the numbers,” Bray said. “I think it exceeded our expectations by quite a bit, and we’ve already got great ideas for next year and how to really augment that space for a longer period of time.
“We’re thrilled.”
The display was originally set to end on Dec. 30, but the association pushed the closing date to Jan. 4 because of the delayed opening.
Bray said the association will be reviewing the event’s success with its member businesses once the busy shopping season is over. “But certainly the anecdotal evidence that we’ve heard from businesses is that some of them in Market Square stayed open an hour later because of how many people were around.”
The association will pay the $500,000 cost of the light display over five years. The money comes from the DVBA’s annual budget, which is funded by a special tax based on a downtown property’s commercial assessment.
Bray explained previously that the $500,000 cost is similar to that paid for previous Christmas installations at Centennial Square, such as a skating rink and a Ferris wheel, but in this case, the DVBA can keep and reuse the light display in the future.
