Reviewed November, 29th.
This was a last minute event as I only found out about it the day of the event. The weekend that the Tempe Fantasy of Lights occurred, there were many, many other of holiday lighting festivals all around town and I wanted to check out one of them. Little did I know this lighting of the….well…lights was probably the best example of a great event that probably no one knows about. I arrived in downtown Tempe with my date and right away the roads around Tempe had all the signs that this festival was going to be a great event:
Parking was horrible all around downtown Tempe.
When we found a suitable parking spot (we made our own spot…I am good at that), we headed towards Mill Ave and noticed that all of Mill Avenue from Rio Salado to University was blocked off to all traffic. The more we headed down Mill Avenue, the more we noticed thousands upon thousands of people and all the lights down Mill were not lit. My date and I stood amongst a group of people and waited for the events to start. In the darkness, I could look down Mill Avenue and notice that not only the sidewalks were packed like sardines with people but the middle islands that divide Mill Avenue were packed with people.
‘A pretty impressive turnout’ I thought to myself.
Not too long after that, the first ‘float’ of the parade made the turn onto Mill Avenue and with that turn, ALL of the Christmas lights down Mill Avenue were lit! Just seeing the lights turned on and the reaction and festive atmosphere of the crowd really started to get me into the Christmas spirit.
One of the best sights at the festival was watching the Mayor of Tempe and members of the Tempe City Council, who were assigned convertible cars to sit and wave to the crowd from. However, none of them sat in their cars. They all were visibly charged by the festive holiday atmosphere and spent their time on the parade route running back and forth from either side of the street waving and handing out candy to the spectators. Just those moments alone made this festival a special one.
After that a long procession of floats began consisting of anything from kids dressed from everything from Angels to Gingerbread men, to a group of Senior citizens doing a synchronized mop drill routines.
For me, the Fantasy of Lights Festival was the best way to start off the holiday season! If you could not get in the holiday spirit after attending this event you probably don’t have a pulse.
If you get a chance to go out and experience a holiday event like this, do it! These are the types of events that not only get you ready for the holiday season but they make you feel like you are a real part of the community.
The Fantasy of Lights festival is absolutely a great event and when it comes around next year this is a DO NOT MISS event!!!
I almost forgot!
The Parade ended with an appearance by a VERY special VIP (see below. Right click the image and view it for a bigger image)!!!
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