Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "carnival of lights"

Carnival of Lights | Westfield Christmas Tree lights up

2009-11-28T08:20:03Z

Sacramento's Carnival of Lights began with the lighting of the 50ft tall Westfield Plaza Christmas tree.

This holiday season, the Carnival of Lights will delight visitors with a dazzling display of lights throughout the Central City from the waterfront through Midtown starting the week of Thanksgiving through January 3.

The collaborative effort will feature architectural lighting, holiday décor, and holiday events including the Theatre of Lights in Old Sacramento and the Carnival at St. Rose at 7th & K streets.

Below, are scenes of the Carnival at St. Rose and the Carnival of Lights festivities:

The Carnival at St. Rose is 5-week holiday event that has transformed 7th and K streets into a festive winter carnival featuring a 30-foot Ferris wheel, classic carnival and arcade games, food vendors and more.

Even though it rained, folks enjoyed the Carnival at St.Rose while waiting for the tree to light up.

The view from the ferris wheel.

Umbrellas saved the day.

Lights adorn the front of buildings on one side of K Street, accross from Westfield Plaza.

This young girl gets excited waiting for the tree to be lit.

The crowd is entertained.

Santa arrives!

The holiday season has officially begun.

For more information, (916) 442-8575.

SacPress Photos | Kati Garner

Downtown Sac welcomes the holidays

2009-11-20T21:06:53Z

A worker uses a plumb line to make sure Westfield Downtown Plaza's Christmas tree stands straight. It was delivered by crane early this morning.

The tall tree was lowered into a hole in the concrete in front of the plaza.

Huge planks of wood are used as shims to straighten the trunk.

This worker walked the circumference of the tree, using his plumb line from all angles, to ensure the tree stands upright.

This year will be a brighter holiday for Sacramento. The first-ever Carnival of Lights will delight visitors with a dazzling display of lights throughout the Central City from the waterfront through Midtown starting the week of Thanksgiving through January 3.

The Carnival of Lights will kick off in Old Sacramento the night before Thanksgiving with the annual Old Sacramento Tree Lighting and the Theatre of Lights, produced by the Old Sacramento Business Association.

The Theatre of Lights will bring history to life through a narrated show of lights, sounds and visual effects. The light show will take visitors back to a time when the beloved poem The Night Before Christmas was first introduced in Sacramento in 1857.

The first Tree Lighting of the season and Theatre of Lights inaugural night will take place on November 25 at 6 pm in Old Sacramento at Front and K streets. Two 10-minute light shows will run every Thursday through Sunday at 6:30 pm and 8:00 pm through January 3.

For more information, visit www.oldsactheatreoflights.com.

The Carnival at St. Rose is a 5-week holiday event that will transform 7th and K streets into a festive winter carnival. The event will take place in lieu of the ice rink this holiday season due to conflicts in construction schedules with the K Street Streetscape project and renovation of St. Rose of Lima Park.

Open daily November 27 through January 3 from noon until 8:00 pm, the Carnival at St. Rose will feature a ferris wheel, classic carnival and arcade games, and food vendors.

First 100 in line get in free November 27th.

In the spirit of the season, the carnival will also incorporate live entertainment, a gingerbread house chef challenge, a craft fair, and charity events. Admission to the event for a two-hour session is $6 for children and seniors and $7 for adults. Private parties and group discounts are available with advance reservations.

The Carnival at St. Rose is produced by the DSP and is expected to draw visitors from all over the region. The event is presented by the Westfield Downtown Plaza and sponsored by the University of San Francisco – Sacramento Campus, UC Davis Children’s Hospital, KCRA 3, My58, Johnny Rockets and the Holiday Inn Capitol Plaza.

For more information, visit www.downtownsac.org/carnival.

SacPress photos | Kati Garner

Ice rink decision expected Wednesday

2009-09-15T04:52:55Z

The Midtown Business Association is expected to decide Wednesday whether to take on the financial risk to keep Sacramento's holiday ice-skating rink tradition alive this year.

The association is considering building an outdoor rink in Midtown this year to temporarily replace the seasonal rink at St. Rose of Lima Park at 7th and K Streets. That rink won't be built this year due to conflicts with a park renovation.

Neighborhood input is welcome as the MBA board is expected to vote on the matter during its Monthly Board and Community Meeting, which is always open to the public, said Rob Kerth, executive director of the Midtown Business Association. The meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. at the Sacramento Regional Transit District headquarters, 1400 29th St.

Four Midtown businesses have committed $10,000 total for the rink, which would cost about $250,000 to build, operate and promote from Thanksgiving through Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday.

"That's a lot of money," he said. "Times are tough. But we don't want the tradition to die, and we want to have fun in Midtown."

The MBA is contributing $30,000 and needs at least $20,000 more to make the rink viable. Several large corporations, including some in Midtown, are considering donating another $60,000. But that sponsorship may depend on where the rink is located, which would also be decided at the meeting, Kerth said.

The business association board is considering whether to take the risk on such an expensive event, whose success depends on factors including weather, attendance, ice quality and more. The board must decide whether to hire a contractor and agree to pay $191,000 to build and run the rink.

The rink must have 24,000 paying skaters to take in $190,000 in gate proceeds. Last year, the St. Rose of Lima park rink had only 18,000 skaters, Kerth said. Any money that's lost comes out of a budget for marketing and other events.

The Marshall School/New Era Park Neighborhood Association is considering sending at least one person to the meeting to represent residents' interests and concerns, said group co-chair Bill Burgua.

"We stand with other neighborhood associations to make sure that residential neighborhoods are not negatively impacted — in this case, by parking," he said. "No matter how much commercial is here, Midtown is still primarily residential. They have to be constantly mindful that this is not a central business district."

A renovation of St. Rose of Lima Park that is expected to be completed in November made a rink there impractical, according to the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, which will instead use the site in a Carnival of Lights event. The partnership decided that the time needed to build an ice rink and the potential for rain at that time could cause too many problems and limit operational time.

MBA and the Downtown Sacramento Partnership have been working together to possibly erect a rink in Midtown this year. One possible location would be on the street at 20th and J streets, between the Sacramento News & Review and a strip of new businesses in the Mars Building including Azul Mexican Food and Tequila Bar, Peet's Coffee & Tea, and Lounge on 20. Three other sites being considered include on the street at 18th and L streets, or vacant lots at 28th and J streets or 16th and J streets across from Memorial Auditorium.

During the MBA meeting, Kerth will also propose that the group "cobble together" $25,000 to match $25,000 in city funds that could help the business district take part in the Carnival of Lights currently scheduled for downtown and Old Sacramento.

The money would help the organization decorate more trees with lights for the event, which celebrates the Grand Electric Carnival held in Sacramento in 1895. Kerth will propose keeping Midtown trees lit all year.

The MBA will try to work with the city to change current regulations preventing trees from being lit year-round.

"It just would be too heartbreaking to have all those lights up in the trees and shut them off come Jan. 3," he said. "You'd be looking up there hoping they'd come back on next year."

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Electric carnival parade to be revived

2009-09-09T03:52:25Z

A night parade is in the works to be revived in Sacramento, more than 115 years after the spectacle lit up city streets to celebrate what was said to be the world's first long-distance electric power transmission.

The parade was first held Sept. 9, 1895, during a Grand Electric Carnival that heralded the arrival of electric power in Sacramento. Sacramento's electric carnival parade was so beautiful that Walt Disney Co. later used it as a model for its Electric Light Parade.

The Old Sacramento Business Association is working to revive the night parade during winter holiday festivities in 2011. The plan is to recreate the parade to expand the seasonal celebration and to play up the city's history as the birthplace of many innovations, said Melissa Martinez, executive director of the business association, a business improvement district.

"We were so innovative and we were so at the forefront," she said. "Somehow we've become sleepy. We're not looked at as the city that's dynamic and innovative — and yet everything we are was based on that."

The Grand Electric Carnival was held two months after electricity had first come to the capital 22 miles away from Folsom, where Folsom Dam had been completed in 1893. Until then, electricity hadn't been transmitted more than five miles.

The Sacramento Bee ran a story about the feat, and later, the electric carnival. "The Lightning Blazed," ran the headline, "And Flooded Sacramento's Streets With Lakes of Liquid Fire. A Glorious Dawning, Then Glowed the Sunlight of an Aurora of Progress and Prosperity."

The electric carnival was held for two days during the 1895 state fair to ensure the entire state knew. So many light bulbs outlined the state Capitol and filled Capitol Park trees that the light could be seen for 50 miles.

The highlight was a parade of sparkling floats on streetcars that glided on luminous downtown streets.

"They realized that the best way to celebrate it was during the state fair, because they could bring as many visitors as possible to witness this first transmission of electricity," said Martinez. "The Grand Electric Carnival was one big party. It was 48 hours of just craziness."

So many people came, that residents rented out beds in their homes, she added.

The Grand Electric Carnival has inspired a Carnival of Lights being held this year in two places: Old Sacramento, which will host a Theatre of Lights, and downtown, primarily at St. Rose of Lima Park at Seventh and K Streets. www.sacramentopress.com/headline/11032 The event will be expanded each year. The night parade is expected to be added in two years.

Floats in the original parade were sponsored by local companies. The modern-day electric night parade is expected to include sparkling horse-drawn carriages, business-sponsored floats and community residents.

"Anything's a possibility," Martinez said. "I think it's something everybody could get involved with."

Artifacts courtesy of the Sacramento Public Library's Sacramento Room. Photos by Suzanne Hurt, a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Carnival of Lights to shine downtown

2009-07-23T00:38:30Z

More than a century after the Grand Electric Carnival lit up the streets of downtown Sacramento, a new event called the Carnival of Lights will set downtown shimmering again for the 2009 holiday season.

The light carnival being arranged by the Downtown Sacramento Partnership (DSP) will mark the grand re-opening of St. Rose of Lima Park and the 700 block of Seventh Street. Both are currently undergoing renovations that are expected to be finished one week before Thanksgiving.

The Carnival of Lights will make the intersection of Seventh and K streets glow starting on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The event is timed to coincide with the Christmas Tree lighting held at the entrance to Westfield Downtown Plaza.

The carnival, which will run daily through Jan. 3, will replace the ice-skating rink at that location, but only this year, said DSP Director of Marketing Lisa Martinez.

"While we won't have ice, we're trying to create that same magical atmosphere downtown," she said. "The carnival will be a festive environment."

Festivities and holiday lights are also in the works for Midtown. In just one possible development, Midtown Business Association Executive Director Rob Kerth, a member of the family that built and still owns Iceland Skating Rink, is working with the downtown partnership to possibly build the ice-skating rink on a Midtown lot this year.

The ice-skating rink in St. Rose of Lima Park is named for his dad, William John Kerth. The plan will depend on what kind of financial support can be raised for an outdoor holiday rink, which has become a winter tradition for some Sacramentans.

The park's rink, which has operated for 18 years, won't be built this year because the renovation will still be underway in late October. That's when rink construction must start in time for the usual start date on the first Friday in November. Peak skating season for the rink is Thanksgiving through Christmas.

Crews need two weeks of cool, dry weather to build the rink, lay insulation, install coolant-filled pipes and spray the surface with layers of water that will turn into ice, she said.

Starting the week before Thanksgiving means the park's traditional two-and-a-half-month skating season would be shortened by a month. The rink wouldn't be ready in time for the tree lighting. And the cost to build, maintain and dismantle the rink is high.

"It's a significant expense," she said. "As difficult of a choice as it was to not do the ice rink, we're committed to doing it in the future."

This year's Carnival of Lights was inspired by the Grand Electric Carnival. In September 1895, downtown Sacramento was illuminated for the Grand Electric Carnival, which feted the first historic power transmission from the Folsom power house to Sacramento. The power system was built to supply electricity to the city's electric streetcars, businesses and industrial works.

During the electric carnival, so many light bulbs outlined the state Capitol and filled Capitol Park trees that the light could be seen for 50 miles. That night, a parade of sparkling floats carried on streetcars glided down the luminous streets. The spectacle was so festive that Walt Disney Co. later modeled its Electric Light Parade after Sacramento's electric carnival parade.

This year, the goal of the lights carnival is to show off the new public space and to link K Street Mall to other parts of downtown -- and to help drive people to local businesses -- during the holiday season.

"People forget how walkable downtown Sacramento is and how beautiful the architecture is," said Martinez.

The carnival will feature rides including a 30-foot ferris wheel, tents with carnival and video games, activities and visits from Santa Claus.

For the first time, the downtown partnership is developing plans to light up other parts of downtown for the holidays. They're working with property owners, including the city, to get holiday lights installed on buildings and may put up twinkling, energy-efficient LED lights on K, J and L streets. This year's efforts will be continued and built upon in coming years, she said.

"We wanted to create something that would drive people downtown to see what it (the park) looks like and see what it's all about," said Martinez. "With the Grand Electric Carnival, they were celebrating the transmission of power. We're just celebrating the historic qualities of downtown."

Photos courtesy of the Sacramento Public Library's Sacramento Room.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. She can be reached at 916-804-2856 or suzanne@sacramentopress.com.