Heading into the final weekend for the Airdrie Festival of Lights, Executive Director Michelle Pirzek is very pleased with the way things have gone in 2018.

Pirzek says the outstanding winter weather during December has led to big crowds for the festival, now in its 23rd season.

"We're absolutely thrilled with the season so far.  It's been a lot of years since we've not had to close due to cold weather and it looks like we're going to make it all the way through to December 31st.  The turnout's been great.  We don't have final numbers and we haven't dug into exactly how many people have come.  We know that we've had some exceptionally busy nights.  We've had great crowds on nights where we'd normally see a few hundred we've seen thousands.   It's been an incredible season for sure."

Pirzek says many of the new features that have been added this year by the Festival Society have been big hits.

"We added in the 12 Days of Christmas which was a bucket list item for us.  It's a display that the original founders wanted but just couldn't afford at the time.  We were thrilled to be able to bring that in.  We've added to our Penguin Village, we've got this super cute, cool penguin that slides off our igloo now.  We've added a family of carolers into our townscapes and we've added in an ice skating bear into our skating party.  They're bigger than we thought they'd be displays and they look incredible."

The only damper to the festival this year were two coyote attacks that took place at Nose Creek Park, the Festival of Lights' home.  Pirzek says they were very concerned about people's safety and believes it may have kept some people away, but she was extremely pleased by the response from the City of Airdrie.

"We, of course, were extremely concerned about what was going on with it but we were thrilled with the city's reaction to it.  We've had our wildlife consultant on site ever since.  Since the incident in Woodside, we've had zero contact at the park again, which is great.  We're thrilled the city still has wildlife on site, parks staff on site as needed.  I do think we were impacted a little but our numbers are still phenomenal.  I think people understood that we were doing everything we could to mitigate the circumstances as much as possible."

Pirzek says the reaction from festival goers has been tremendous and she's really pleased that so many have taken the time to compliment and thank their volunteers.

"We are a volunteer-based organization so when there's people there jingling the jugs or driving our trains they're there because they're giving of their time and people are recognizing how much of a volunteer organization it is and they're simply saying thank you.  We're also hearing the lights look fantastic, everything's brighter, beautiful layout, they're loving the new displays that we put in this season. Just all around good, positive comments for sure."

The Festival of Lights runs nightly from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm through New Year's Eve.  Admission is by donation.  The event will wrap up this year with a family-friendly dance party that runs from 7:00 pm until 9:00 pm in the festival's heated tent. 

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