Five hundred light displays, more than a million bulbs, and 100 miles worth of strings. All of these makes the Bull Run Festival of Lights in Centreville the largest drive-through holiday light show in Virginia.
“This is not your residential Griswold Christmas show,” says Evan Inkley, the events manager at Bull Run Regional Park.
The park held its first holiday show a decade ago, in 2011. It has since expanded to a nearly two-month-long extravaganza, complete with light-up winter wonderlands, musical trees, and a show-stopping Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
It’s an enormous task, requiring several dozen staff members and eight months, from pre-production to take down. Inkley notes that preparations start in July, and it can take until March for everything to come down and be carefully put away to avoid a tangled mess of lights.
“You don’t want a 300-pound ball of tangled light strings. Nobody wants that,” he says with a laugh.
But it’s all worth it for the thousands of locals who come to see the show every season. 2020 saw more cars passing through than ever before–86,000 cars, says Inkley, compared to 47,000 in 2019.
“We go up a little bit every year, but not to those numbers,” he says. “It was really one of the only activities that was COVID-safe … there was really nothing else to do. The fact that we were able to put it up safely and still manage the staffing while showing up for the community was great for everyone.”
It’s still expected to be crowded this year, but maybe closer to 70,000 cars, Inkley notes.
With the Bull Run Regional Park being a nonprofit, revenue made from the light show goes back to maintaining facilities, an assortment of programs, and funding the other NOVA Parks.
This year’s light show promises to be bigger and more festive, promises Inkley. There are new lights, displays (including one featuring disc golf), and more music.
While some light displays are purchased, plenty are made, programmed, and refurbished by the staff at Bull Run.
“Any of the trees that change colors and do all sorts of crazy patterns, all of the arches that do a similar thing … all of those are made in-house,” he says.
It’s also been a goal of the park to reduce the light show’s electric footprint. Last year, all displays were transitioned from 12-volt light bulbs to being completely LED-power. Beyond simply being more environmentally conscious, LEDs additionally increase the longevity of the light displays.
“I think people would be genuinely surprised at how little the electricity bill is for a show of this magnitude,” Inkley says. “Our biggest display, that’s 150 feet wide and 30 feet tall, probably pulls as much [electricity] as ten hairdryers.”
While staff has worked to improve capacity and prevent huge lines, including by making the entire show double lanes and having online-only ticket sales, it can still get crowded. To avoid long lines of cars, Inkley suggests coming during the week.
“That week around and the week after Christmas, everyone wants to come to the light show,” he says.
While the holiday season is short, for Inkley and his staff, the Bull Run Festival of Lights is a constant. A spectacle of this nature is a ton of work.
“It never stops,” Inkley says. “It’s almost like as soon as you finish putting the stuff away, catch your breath, you’re already putting it back up.”
Feature image courtesy NOVA Parks
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