Photo via BC Wildlife Park
Wildlights will run December 13th – January 5th from 4:00pm – 9:00pm nightly, excluding Christmas Day.
Over 1 million lights will turn on at 5:00pm each night. “It’s our 27th annual event,” says General Manager Glen Grant. “It is great that we’ve been doing the show for for so long. And we keep adding and adding and adding every year.”
Grant says there a few new things to come and see. “Most notably is on the Great Lawn, which was Santa’s Village last year. We’ve got a 35 foot flag pole and cables that we turned into a big ribbon tree. So it’s all done up in blue and white mini lights and icicle lights. And that’s going to be really cool this year.”
“Everything we’re doing new needs to be a photo opportunity where people can take some photos and do some Instagram posts, that kind of thing.”
“We got Fred Flintstone’s car and Fred Flintstone. One of the guys just made a comment of, ‘hey, with all these dinosaurs here, why don’t we do a Flintstone car?’ So we did. People can sit inside it and take a couple of pictures. We got a seven foot tall rope light, Fred, that’s standing there. So that’ll be kind of nice. People see a few other new rope light scenes as they walk around, but those are the highlights.”
The Wildlife Express Miniature train will be operating nightly from 5:00pm-8:30pm* (last train ride departs at 8:30pm). Tickets are $1.00 each (cash only), and can be purchased at the train station.
Of course there is always a chance to see some animals while taking in the light display. ” There will be a new animal that will be introduced to everybody this wildlife. And it’s a couple of woodland caribou, also known as reindeer. So we have two. They’re up where the camels used to be, near the playground. There will be a lit pathway to get through to to see them. We will be doing a feeding every night with the woodland caribou. And we’ll also be doing a feeding every night with the elk. So those are a couple of animals that don’t mind some yellow lights, because it’s not that invasive and and you will be able to see them quite easily.”
Once again, in partnership with the Canucks Autism Network, December 13th is a sensory friendly evening. “This will be the third annual Canuck autism, sensory friendly night,” says Grant. “The lights, when they’re static, aren’t really bothersome to the kids. It’s when they’re flashing a lot, when they’re changing colors a lot. It’s loud music. All those things are not are not going to happen on sensory night.
Grant mentions that little short Christmas movies will be shown at the theatre throughout the event. And on sensory night, the theatre will be turned into a quiet zone.
Grant thanked the community and the event’s sponsors for helping to make Wildlights a reality each year. “We couldn’t do this type of event without the support of the community. And we look forward to doing it for many more years.”
You can get tickets to the event at the door, but Grant says it might be easier to get them online ahead of time.
