Photo credit: Alan Herzberg, Jr.
Photo opportunity at Zeidler Union Square
The 2020 Milwaukee Holiday Lights Festival will continue with all its illuminated magic and more, as the annual event now finds itself on a mission. In its 22-year history, the annual tradition has survived through other historic challenges and now faces safety-distancing restrictions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although some alterations will change the viewing formats, the spirit and wonder of the season remains intact.
The annual display of lights (Nov. 19–Jan. 1), coordinated by Milwaukee Downtown, BID #21, will transform three downtown parks into winter wonderland scenes: “Community Spirit Park” at Cathedral Square Park, “Tinsel Town Express” at Pere Marquette Park, and “Polar Plaza powered by We Energies” at Zeidler Union Square. Three downtown thoroughfares will be lit including an 18-block stretch of lights along Wisconsin Avenue.
“This has been a year where our innovation has been challenged, and we want to rise to the occasion,” Beth Weirick, the Milwaukee Downtown, BID #21 CEO. “People need joy. COVID-19 fatigue has affected us all. This family-friendly tradition is a good prescription, while promoting these parks and our downtown as a destination. Our partners also stepped up, and we want to say, ‘Turn it on and away we go.’”
In a break with years past, the festival’s Jingle Bus service will look slightly differently as the motor coach tour pivots away from a warming house and motor coach tour. Guests can experience the lighting displays through a virtual or self-guided audio tour of downtown’s most brilliant scenes. An interactive map and audio tour at www.milwaukeeholidaylights.com beginning in early Nov., is available for access.
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Cathedral Square Park will continue the tradition of hosting a direct connection to the North Pole, as Santa’s Mailbox, presented by Serving Older Adults, returns Nov. 2–Dec. 6. Boys and girls dropping their letters into Santa’s Mailbox will get a personalized reply, if they provide a return address…no postage required.
The 2020 annual festival ornament, hand-carved by local artist Andrew Schumann, is this year’s featured landmark, the harbor-spanning Hoan Bridge. Selected for its iconic golden arches, the Hoan Bridge has been lit each night since Oct. 22, and the ornament is available for $19.95 plus shipping and handling at shop.milwaukeedowntown.com for $19.95 plus shipping and handling.
Grab-and-Go gift boxes, by Milwaukee Food & City Tours, will make Jingle Joy Boxes available for purchase in a socially distanced drive-through at Zeidler Union Square from 5:30-8:30 p.m., Thurs,-Sat. Dec. 3-19, at $15 each with goodies from local businesses
“We have changed slightly, from the events that locals have come to know and love,” said Weirick. “However, this year’s virtual and ‘snowcially-distanced’ edition will carry on the tradition of making spirits bright.”
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