MORRISBURG – The record cold snap that gripped Eastern Ontario for the balance of the Christmas break caused a decrease in attendance to this year’s Alight at Night festival at Upper Canada Village.
Attendance to the festival in 2016 was 37,000 visitors, this year the event attracted 34,767 visitors, a drop of about 2,400 visitors.
“We were very pleased with the performance of Alight at Night this year,” said Susan LeClair – manager of corporate communications for the St. Lawrence Parks Commission. “All the experiences including the new Twinkle Town were well received by visitors.”
LeClair told The Leader that 2016 was one of the warmest Decembers and that 2017 was one of the coldest in the history of the event.
“We were off to a great start and then for what is normally our busiest week between Christmas and New Year’s and till we closed January 6th, the severe cold hit.”
Looking ahead to next year, LeClair said the village team will review all elements and be starting to plan for 2018.
The lights at UCV will be on for one last event, the ‘Ignite the Night Snowshoe Race’ on January 13th
The night time race is the only night race in the Dion Eastern Ontario Snowshoe Running Series. This is the fourth year the race has run at UCV.
Upper Canada Village will reopen to the public May 4th with the regular summer program.
