By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — The Festival of Lights is a bit brighter at the halfway point of its annual run.
Volunteers who put the holiday lights display together added 46 illuminated Christmas trees to the drive-thru display at Sinnissippi Park, 1401 N. Second St.
“If anybody came the first week, we didn’t have those up yet,” Ted O’Donnell, co-chairman of the festival, said on This Week in the Stateline. “There’s always all new little things that people will pick up on as they go through one, two or 10 times.”
O’Donnell said that traffic has been steady at the festival, but donations have been down. The festival is run entirely by volunteers and funded 100% by donations.
“We hope that donations pick up a little bit so we can continue the growth that we’ve been doing since 2017,” O’Donnell said.
This is the last weekend that Santa Claus appears during the event. Here’s the remaining schedule:
Festival of Lights viewing schedule
- 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Dec. 16-19
- 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Dec. 20-23
- 24 hours on Christmas Eve
- 24 hours on Christmas Day
- 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Dec. 26
- 5 p.m. to midnight on New Year’s Eve (last showing)
- New Years Eve 5pm – 12am (last showing)
Santa Claus schedule
- 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Dec. 17-19