With the flick of a switch, the 37th annual Lions’ Festival of Lights lit up the night on Nov. 25, ushering in the month-long countdown to Christmas in Calgary.
The festival, which has delighted generations of Calgarians at Confederation Park Golf Course, took a new meaning this year as the mission to provide free and accessible Christmas cheer was contrasted by the last year of inflation and interest rates.
Otto Silzer, Chair for the Lions’ Festival of Lights, said that the Calgary Lions Club annual display is about giving people the opportunity to come and take part in the Christmas spirit.
“That’s really the key. The thing is that we do not even think about charging, that doesn’t even come up in our discussions. We have partners that help us do this, and then we have the Lions donate a few dollars to it. Other than that, it’s totally free,” he said.
“It’s very important, especially today in today’s economic conditions when people are struggling to put food on their table.”
Each year, dozens of volunteers donate hundreds of hours to put on the display—some 600,000 lights on 25,0000 strings of lights that took more than 2,000 hours to put up.
Silzer, who has been volunteering for all 37 years of the festival, said that the annual volunteer corps showed you can never be too old, or too far from Calgary to help out.
Among the volunteers this year were from organizations as diverse as the City of Calgary, ENMAX, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 254, and even a pair of Lions who were visiting from Ghana.
“You know, hats off to the people from Ghana that came out. They’d never seen snow before, they came out and it was cold—it was terribly cold—but they came out every day to work,” said Silzer.
Mayor Jyoti Gondek flipped the ceremonial switch for 2023, saying that the Festival of Lights has had a pretty special place in her family’s life for nearly two decades.
“I remember bringing my kiddo here for the first time about 17 years ago. This is a pretty special place,” she said.
“For everyone who had something to do with putting this on, thank you for giving us something to smile about. Thank you for giving us something to celebrate and bringing a sense of community to our city.”
The Lions’ Festival of Lights is available to be viewed free of charge from 6:30 to 10 p.m. nightly from 14 Street and 24 Avenue NW.
Free and paid Christmas light displays around Calgary
- Spruce Meadows: Dec. 8-10, Dec. 15-17, Dec. 22-24, Dec. 29-30. All dates from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Entry to the annual Spruce Meadows Christmas Lights is free, with parking available at Lot 7 for those individuals who wish to walk the lights.
- CPKR Christmas Train: Dec. 9, 6:00 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. The annual Christmas Train will be rolling into Calgary at Anderson LRT station on Dec. 9. featuring live music from Anyway Gang. Visitors are suggested to arrive early for parking, and expect some delays when leaving on to Macleod Trail.
- Lighten UP Calgary: Various times throughout Calgary. Check out the biggest list of community displays of Christmas Lights from Lighten UP Calgary run by Silvana Stoesser and Christian Fruhen, who annually help connect Calgarians with their neighbours’ best displays.
- Glow Festival of Lights: Dec. 7-31. Christmas Glow is back at the Nutrient Event Centre on Stampede Park, featuring the theme of Santa’s missing sleigh this year. Glow features 90,000 square ft. of entirely indoor Christmas Light displays. Tickets start at $28 for general admission, and $21 for children 15 and under.
- ZooLights: Nov. 17 to Jan. 7: Check out the well over a million lights in Calgary’s biggest display of Christmas lights at the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo’s annual ZooLights. This year features tributes to the newest addition to the Calgary Zoo, polar bears. General admission starts at $21.95, and $14.95 for children 15 and under.
Photos from the 37th annual Lions’ Festival of Lights
