Chris Bierdeman fondly recalls watching East Peoria’s snaking, festive holiday-lights parades while growing up in Illinois. The Festival of Lights, as it’s called, is a four-decade tradition that unites floats, lighting displays and other holiday décor. But there’s also the drive-thru park.
“It’s a show they run after Thanksgiving through New Year’s,” said Bierdeman, now the events manager for the city of Loveland. “I’ve done both that and walk-thru lighting displays. But in (Loveland’s) case, we have never done a drive-thru experience because our primary goal is to bring people to Chapungu Sculpture Park.”
To see Loveland’s free Winter Wonderlights display, you’ve got to be willing to hoof it around the 26-acre park, which features unique African sculptures. Of course, that’s part of the appeal of traditional, walking-based displays, such as Denver Botanic Gardens’ Blossoms of Light or Denver Zoo Conversation Alliance’s Zoo Lights.
Loveland’s Winter Wonderlights in 2019, two years after its debut as a free, public holiday lighting display. (Provided by Fyn PR)
Both are massively popular and still seeing audience growth, with some dates already sold out and hours being expanded to accommodate demand, according to officials.
But even as producers say that walking and drive-thru tours can coexist during the holidays, they’re often in competition. Not so much the free public displays, they say, but the ticketed ones. With passes running up to $25 per person, visiting one of these attractions can be a stark choice for tightly budgeted families.
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If they can only afford one, which should they choose?
“They both serve a great purpose,” said Bierdeman, who’s watched more drive-thrus pop up since the pandemic, following the success of shows such as Christmas in Color. That drive-thru show is making its Red Rocks Amphitheatre debut this year (moving over from the now-closed Bandimere Speedway), along with existing locations at Water World in Federal Heights and Arapahoe County Fairgrounds in Aurora.
“But walking is more immersive,” he said of Loveland’s seven-year-old display. “There are no car walls, and you can spend as much or as little time as you want,” as opposed to moving in a line of cars through a tunnel, as with most drive-thru displays. “On certain nights you can also make (walk-thru displays) a festival, with live music and vendors and food trucks.”
Last year’s Winter Wonderlights saw about 35,000 adults coming through, and likely that many more children, he said — although the city doesn’t have an exact count because of the imprecision of the cellphone-tracking data. The city also has gotten more than $100,000 in grants to help beef up Winter Wonderlights, Bierdeman added, following weather-related disasters in the late 2010s.
There’s something that feels new — maybe too new for some — about the drive-thru format, despite it having been around essentially since automobiles were invented. On the other hand, walk-thru displays feel leisurely, but can also get crowded and teeth-chattering as people stop in the middle of mile-long paths to chat and take photos. (Navigating the pinball trajectories of children is also part of it.)
Denver Botanic Gardens’ Blossoms of Light on Nov. 17, 2024, in Denver. (Scott Dressel-Martin, provided by Denver Botanic Gardens)
“I’ve done some drive-thru shows and they’re fun,” said Kristi Horvath, manager of public events at Denver Botanic Gardens, which saw about 195,000 people at last year’s Blossoms of Light. “You can turn up music and listen really loudly. But it is different, especially if you don’t have a sunroof or moonroof, because you’re limited to seeing out the windows. Depending on where you’re sitting in the car, that could be not very much.”
Both formats offer curated experiences, although drive-thrus probably share more with theme park rides than interactive pedestrian displays. Both also offer different forms of accessibility, cold-weather planning, post-show amenities, proximity to shopping, ticket prices and photo-opp locations. Want to bring your pet? As long as they stay in the car, you’re golden. The beauty is customizing what works for you, said Christmas in Color CEO Todd Glover.
His show, which opened in Colorado in 2017 and now has three locations along the Front Range, continues to see year-over-year audience growth, although he declined to share numbers and said there aren’t many sites left locally for a potential fourth location. Part of his company’s success comes from the fact that some people have finally rejected the middling hassle of walk-thru displays, he said.
“There are definitely pros and cons,” said Glover, who charges $35-$45 per car. “But when we came on the scene, we really just found a way to bring higher energy and more fun to the holiday lighting experience.”
Kids enjoy the lights at Christmas in Color, which has three Front Range displays, including a new one for 2024 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, in this promotional image. (Provided by Christmas in Color)
He likes the artistic displays at static installations, he said, but they only “go for so far.” And all his young kids could see in them were freezing temperatures, making it tough to get excited about the family activity.
“What we’re trying to create is a party in your car,” he said of his 30- to 40-minute experiences, which wind through millions of lights and waves of holiday music. “It’s an experience you can’t have anywhere else.”