Downtown Rochester’s Big Bright Light Show delights thousands

An estimated 56,000 folks attended the primary night time of the Huge, Vivid Gentle Present in downtown Rochester on Monday.

Lagniappe is a Creole phrase for a small present or, as Rochester’s Downtown Growth Authority places it, “a bit one thing,” so guests know they’re appreciated by retailers.

Guests have been handled to fireworks and a go to from Santa Claus, who caught round to listen to kids’s Christmas needs.

Relying on the climate, it’s going to take about eight weeks, 60,000 plastic zip ties and 12 to 16 folks to put in the string lights, which complete an estimated 1.5 million lights, mentioned Rob Hentkowski, certainly one of three vice presidents at Dan’s Excavating employees in Shelby Township.

Work will start in early October and it’s a nice undertaking for coaching electrical college students, he mentioned, including that it’s greater than a job.

“Everybody from the corporate and their households are attempting to get there the primary night time,” he mentioned. “We’ll keep downtown for a number of extra nights. It is fairly an occasion.”

The Huge, Vivid Gentle Present continues day by day from 5pm to midnight via January 18, with the lights on for 48 hours on December 24 and 25 and December 31 and January 1.

Kristi Trevarrow, govt director of Rochester DDA, mentioned the prolonged vacation hours will permit individuals who wish to keep away from crowds or nighttime driving to view the lights and take photographs. When it snows on Christmas when shops are closed, downtown Rochester appears to be like like a snow globe scene, she mentioned.

After January 18, Dan’s employees will return to the middle to take away the lights.

“It is lots sooner to take them down since you’re simply slicing the tires and wrapping the lights, not lining up each wire,” Hentkowski mentioned, including that folks will see these pesky orange and white barrels blocking the streets, including, “Do not be mad about that. Orange and white barrels are our Christmas bushes. They’re how we assist our households.”

Trevarrow mentioned the DDA is paying $291,000 to put in the lights, which she referred to as a high-return funding.

Utilizing mobile phone monitoring expertise, she mentioned, the DDA has documented 1.5 million guests downtown, lots of whom keep on the town for a median of 118 minutes.

“We all know that our downtown companies make someplace between 30% and 40% of their annual earnings in the course of the Huge, Vivid Gentle Present, so $291,000 is an funding we make and a return the companies get,” she mentioned. “That is why now we have a excessive occupancy charge downtown. It is a cyclical course of.”

The DDA organized much more themes for the vacations: Plaid Friday on November 28 and Small Business SaturdayNov. 29, the place folks can enter to win $1,000 whereas purchasing downtown, adopted by the Kris Kringle Marketan open-air purchasing vacation spot on West Fourth Avenue in Walnut on December 5 and 6.

For details about occasions in downtown Rochester, name (248) 656-0060 or go to DowntownRochesterMI.com.