Springwater Provincial Park will be lit up with the magic of the Christmas season starting tomorrow.
For the first time, the park, located at 1331 Highway 26 in Midhurst, will be host to hundreds of thousands of brightly coloured lights for a special drive-through holiday lights experience called the Magic of Lights.
"We are thrilled to see this exciting new experience come to our township. The Magic of Lights display will help bring the holidays to life in Springwater and complement the existing traditions and holiday events our residents look forward to each year," Township of Springwater Mayor Jennifer Coughlin told BarrieToday. “I can't wait to take my daughters and kick off the magic of the season right here in Springwater.”
“Springwater Park is the perfect place to experience a winter wonderland of light, sound and magic,” added Tourism Barrie executive director Kathleen Trainor, noting although the city was not involved in bringing the event, they are promoting it as one of the region’s leading experiences this holiday season.
Scheduled to run from Friday, Nov. 18 until Sunday, Jan. 1, the event will feature favourite holiday scenes and characters of the season using the latest LED technology and digital animations.
Visitors can stay warm and get into the Christmas spirit from the comfort and safety of their own vehicles as they wind through the sparkling path of the region’s newest holiday tradition. Whether it’s the larger-than-life sparkling Holiday Barbie display, the supersized Bigfoot Monster Truck, or the life-sized dinosaurs of Prehistoric Christmas, families are invited to pile everyone into the family car and experience more at one price for the whole family — or carload.
“Magic of Lights will feature displays such as Holidays Around the World, Blizzard Alley, Maple Leaf Lane, the 32-foot tall Waving Christmas Barbie, Prehistoric Christmas where life-size dinosaurs celebrate the season and the notorious Enchanting Tunnel of Lights,” event spokesperson Amy Flax explained in an email to BarrieToday.
“Magic of Lights will excite kids of all ages and big kids, too … and will ignite memories of the past while creating new ones with loved ones," she added. "Over a million lights sparkle along the Magic​ of Lights route … and it’s a happy holiday experience for people of all ages - families, couples, friends, social and work groups."
The frame of each scene is designed using the latest CAD technology and hand-built, in-house from the Magic of Lights warehouse located in Medina, Ohio, Flax noted, adding the show holds more than 10 miles (a little more than 16 kilometres) of LED lighting installed inside the displays, in trees and on buildings throughout its course.
“There are 10 different colours of LED bulbs used (and) scenes are as high as 32 feet tall and as long as several hundred feet. The steel displays are designed, bent, cut and welded into about 800 frames that are combined in different configurations to create each show’s giant winter holiday scenes," Flax said.
The standard vehicle price is $21 in advance or $30 at the gate on weekdays and $35 on weekends if purchased prior to Dec. 8, and $26 for a standard car — or $35 at the gate on weekdays and $40 on weekends.
