They spent months on this light display and really want you — and your dog — to see it
Illuminations is Botanica’s biggest annual event, and this year, it opened two weeks early.
But it appears, say organizers of the Christmas light extravaganza, that some people may have missed the memo that there are two Illuminations this year.
One — the traditional route — invites guests to walk the grounds on a special path with one-way traffic. People have to buy tickets for a specific time, and to avoid unwanted crowding during COVID-19, only 2,000 people are admitted to the grounds during each time period.
The other route, though, is a drive-through option that didn’t exist before Botanica’s “Illumagician” Lee Lindquist was struck with inspiration. The display winds through the venue’s main parking lot and features 400,000 lights — three fourths of which are programmed to dance to music as cars stream past.
The only issue: The setup isn’t really visible from surrounding streets, and though traffic has been respectable so far, organizers are wondering if people just don’t realize that the drive-through part of the exhibit exists. It costs $20 a carload to visit, $25 on Fridays and Saturdays.
“It hasn’t been a smash hit yet,” Lindquist said. “We haven’t had a night totally sold out like in the walk through. But for starting it off in the first year, I’m very happy with it. We’ve had a lot of challenges to overcome.”
The path, which is about a half mile long and takes 10 minutes to traverse, offers the eye an overload of Christmas lights. Trees wrapped from trunk to top dance and change color in time to music over the FM dial, and lighted snowflakes are everywhere. The exhibit features Christmas trees of all sizes, a miniature Santa train, and a 240-foot tunnel of flashing lights that cars creep slowly through.
The exhibit took a crew of volunteers who started its assembly in August and worked on it all day, every day until Illuminations opened, Lindquist said. Though it uses some repurposed pieces that are usually part of the walk-through exhibit, 70 percent of the display is new, he said.
The drive-through exhibit was Lindquist’s suggestion, he said. A holiday light enthusiast so serious about his craft that he attends Christmas Light conventions, he’d seen friends in other cities organizing big drive-through light displays at the start of the pandemic, when people were stuck at home and just starting to make sense of things. The light displays were meant to provide a socially distanced pick-me-up.
Lindquist and some volunteers actually put together a smaller version of what’s up now back in April, but the county’s Stay-At-Home order had recently begun and local officials didn’t want Botanica encouraging people to get out. The crews took the display back down — but not before staff members and a few curious Riverside residents had driven through it.
“Everybody loved it, and they were like, ‘This is so cool,’” Lindquist said. “So I thought, ‘Okay, if this keeps going on and if we’re limited in our capacity and in our capability for what we can do by the time Illuminations rolls around, we need to keep this in our back pocket.’”
To keep people safe during COVID-19, Botanica drastically cut back the number of people who could be walking around inside the grounds during Illuminations this year, and the drive-through was seen as a fun way to supplement the income Botanica would lose. The event covers a large part of the venue’s budget each year, one that is already stretched because Botanica had to cancel all its spring and summer fundraisers.
The drive-through also is an option for people who might not feel comfortable joining the crowds at the walk-through exhibit.
“There are some advantages to this, too,” Lindquist said. “Kids can come in their pajamas. You can bring your dog. You can bring your own food. Whatever.”
The drive-through portion of the event will be open longer than the walk-through, too — until Jan. 30. Between now and then, it will be closed only on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
People still have to buy timed tickets for the drive through online in advance so that the venue can avoid traffic jams. They’re available at botanica.org.
To get to the drive-through, people should go past the Wichita Art Museum on Sim Park Drive. then follow directional arrows that will wind them through the park for a while before they’ll reach the entrance. They’ll turn off their headlights then proceed through the exhibit, which snakes through Botanica’s main parking lot.
They’ll exit through a normally locked gate on the parking lot’s far east side and will find themselves on Murdock Street.
The walk-through part of the tour will be open nightly through Jan. 9 (except for Dec. 24-25). Tickets must be purchased in advance online for time slots between 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. They cost $13 for adults, $9 for children and members. Children 2 and under will be admitted free. Get them at botanica.org.
This story was originally published December 3, 2020 at 10:01 AM.
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