JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Nights of Lights event that brings thousands to St. Augustine during the holiday season could be shortened for the upcoming year to address overwhelming traffic issues.
At the end of last year’s Nights of Lights celebration, residents poured out their concerns to city officials about the large crowds and hectic traffic coming from the event that comes to St. Augustine from November to January.
Vice Mayor Barbara Blonder suggested scaling back the event by 20 days as a temporary solution.
She brought up the subject during a city commission meeting, where she pointed to a recent conversation she had with a resident, who said the event had “gotten out of control.”
Blonder said she talked with a resident who told her she could not leave her home for two hours because an event attendee parked their car and blocked her from leaving. She had to have the car towed and when the attendee returned to find their car gone, an argument ensued.
“With that in mind, I’m going to direct staff to prepare a resolution temporarily reducing the Nights of Lights for the 2025 season from Thanksgiving weekend ending the weekend after New Year, which would be the 5th of January,” Blonder said.
She proposed the temporary change to give the city more time to find a permanent solution moving forward.
News4JAX spoke with Blonder on Tuesday afternoon about the proposal.
“We have too many people coming, and they’re not even getting a great experience when they come to visit,” Blonder explained.
Businesses like Old Town Trolley Tours are concerned about shortening the time frame Nights of Lights will run. Dave Chatterton, General Manager, feels it could mean larger crowds during the thick of the season.
“For us, it’s much more of a regional event,” Chatterton explained. “By shortening the number of operating dates, my concern is that it’s just going to be busier.”
On the other hand, some downtown residents, like Tom Day, support the idea of a shorter event. Day believes that Nights of Lights has become too commercialized and has strayed from its original intent.
“The nights of lights was a wonderful idea that’s gotten out of hand,” Day said. “It’s become commercialized. And what started out as a celebration of the architecture of the 15th and 16th and 17th century has turned into just an excuse to have a big party.”
Day also pointed out issues he deals with during the event.
“People coming into your front yard, urinating,” Day said. “People just yelling all hours of the night, the leftovers, people parking on the sidewalk. It gets a little bit out of hand.”
But Chatterton says many locals visit to see the lights in January when the crowds have diminished.
“We employ a lot of people during the month of January,” Chatterton said. “I sort of hate to see these guys get affected by that because it’s a tough time of the year if you work in tourism and hospitality.”
The city has a consultant who specializes in large events to help figure out the future of Nights of Lights.
Blonder is sensitive to business concerns but she says they need to find a compromise that works for everyone because the way it is now isn’t working.
“For this past year, $325,000 it took us to just keep the streets clean and the garbage picked up during nights of lights alone,” Blonder noted. “That balance has to be made, and maybe the business community will help us defray those costs and help us with the staffing that we need for crowd management.”
Blonder is hoping that by shortening Nights of Lights for at least this year it can help get a handle on things.
“The King Street Bridge reconstruction that’s happening starting next summer will make traffic very difficult,” she said. “Adding Nights of Lights visitors to that is one of the reasons I want to temporarily tap on the brakes and try at least this one stopgap measure for this year.”
Blonder says she’ll likely introduce official legislation to shorten Nights of Lights for this year at their March 24th meeting.
Do you think temporarily reducing the event duration would help solve some of the traffic and congestion issues?
Let us know below. Your submission may be featured on a Channel 4 newscast.