Wintry weather is no match for the powerful glow of Lights On Stratford - Winter Festival of Lights, set to launch again on Friday.
A big feature for the fourth annual event is the 'Dandelion' light art installation at Market Square, featured at Vivid Sydney earlier this year.
Last year, Kaileigh Krysztofiak, GM of Lights on Stratford, met with Amigo and Amigo, the artistic team that created 'Dandelion'. They invited her to Vivid Sydney, an annual festival of light, music and ideas.
Krysztofiak left Australia assured that guests at Lights on Stratford would be impressed with 'Dandelion', which was the "star of the show", displayed in front of Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge.
"The artists did a great job of integrating sound and light," Krysztofiak told StratfordToday.
A winter festival managed by Destination Stratford, Lights On Stratford uses the downtown core and park system to bring together art and interactive lights installations. It also brings together thousands of people in the typical 'off-season', with the Stratford Festival theatre wrapped up.
Destination Stratford describes Dandelion as "inspired by the wind-swept petals of the dandelion, an international symbol of playfulness, and in some cultures even believed to have medicinal properties". Every 10 minutes, Dandelion "boasts its natural talents to the audience, by spilling out into an eclectic and modern sound and light animation, inspired by wind, and the natural properties of the dandelion."
Krysztofiak said the light and sound show is about three-and-a-half minutes long.
"What is also cool, and different from what we have had in the past, is you can go inside of it. You can view and take in the show and interact with it from the inside."
On Tom Patterson Island, aka Space Island, Krysztofiak said the popular Journey to the Stars sun and planets display is also returning. The planetary theme is very popular through all age groups, she said, and it will be boosted by a nearby addition, called the Lunar Lamp Posts. That display will feature interactive moons at different heights.
It is always great to hear young people explaining the planetary system to adults, Krysztofiak noted.
This year's theme for Lights on Stratford is Emergence, a noun that Destination Stratford said goes back to the Latin root emerge, meaning 'bring to light'.
Friday's opening night festivities start at 6 p.m.
New this year is a change in days and nights of operation. Organizers decided to shift to Thursdays to Sundays, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. (after Friday's opening). Previously seven-days-per-week, organizers noted that Mondays to Wednesdays were slower people-wise, and weekends busier, Krysztofiak said.
There are also skate dates at William Allman Memorial Arena and hop-on, hop-off shuttle buses, running every 15 minutes this year, instead of every 30 minutes. The buses start at 5 p.m. from the Downie Street bus terminal and take passengers to the main Lights on Stratford locations.
Krysztofiak said 80,000 people visited Lights on Stratford last year and as always, organizers hope more come this time. Keeping the festival accessible to all and feasible - events are free to attend - is important to organizers.
"It is definitely a part of our mission statement to bring people here in the Winter and to bring people outside from our own community. We are trying to open up parkland and use Market Square at a time when we normally hunker down."
Lights on Stratford runs until Jan. 13.
