It likely won’t be visible from the International Space Station, but airplane passengers will certainly be able to spot Oskaloosa’s new holiday light show from the air.
Vicky Collette, president of the community’s Golden Goose Club, says they’ve harnessed high-tech computers and tens of thousands of colored LED lights for a downtown square display like the southeast Iowa town has never seen before. Collette says the Turn on the Lights ceremony is scheduled to start at 5:30 tomorrow night, about a half-hour after sunset.
“Our city band will be playing Christmas music in the bandstand, and at six o’clock, the Painting With Lights will be turned on by our Citizen of the Year,” Collette says, “then our beautiful 20-foot Christmas tree will come on, followed by the Dancing Lights Show.”
Collette says she was captivated and inspired by a holiday light show in Florida and wanted to bring that same joy home to Oskaloosa, so she found a local artist and technical genius who could make it happen.
“There’s 35,000 lights involved in the Dancing Lights part of the program, along with the 20-foot Christmas tree that’s all synched together to 30 different songs,” Collette says. “After Saturday’s event, it will play from Thanksgiving through January 3rd, every evening in the downtown square.”
Town leaders are expecting large crowds for Saturday’s event, and throughout December, as word spreads about the mesmerizing lights and music.
“All the sidewalks are lined, there are other props, little Christmas trees and different things throughout the park,” Collette says. “The light poles are all lined with lights, so that all these things are synchronized to music, and it’s really quite an unbelievable display.”
The music will be playing nightly through the bandstand speakers in the park square, but motorists can also tune it in on 88.7 FM. Oskaloosa is also holding contests for local residents who are decorating their homes as well as businesses with holiday displays in their windows. The community’s lighted Christmas parade is scheduled for December 2nd.