Niagara Falls, ON is offering the region -and the world - light as the long hours of winter darkness increase. Preparations are underway for the 35th Winter Festival of Lights.
The $1.5 million event kicks off with lights, lasers and fireworks November 18, then even more lights added to the millions that line the five-mile festival route. Ontario Power Generation is the Title Sponsor of the festival.
It is a mixed event, with all sorts of attractions for families:
- Deck the Falls Walking Tour is a self-guided 16-stop tour of food, beverages and entertainment
- New lighted exhibits, like the Prismatica includes lighted prisms and the Fallsview sound and light show
- The Passage is an 84-foot-long lighted tunnel
- The Niagara is a five-meter-high display that changes colors
- Canada 150 celebrates the country's anniversary with lights
Executive Director Tina Myers said visitors come from across the world.
"We get people from all over," Myers said. "Some of our ambassadors who work Dufferin Island, it's their favorite part of volunteering for the Winter Festival of Lights and that's hearing where people are from. We have people from literally over the world coming here, enjoying Niagara Falls."
The event was started 35 years ago to fill attractions that were empty after Labor Day. Myers said last winter, 71,000 vehicles and 453 buses brought 1.3 million visitors.
