Light fight!
St. Augustine City Commission Vice Mayor Barbara Blonder wants to shorten Nights of Lights from 65 to 40 days—an audacious move that would shrink the Old City’s signature event by more than a third.
Blonder has instructed city staff to draft a resolution that would start the event on Thanksgiving and pull the cord on the first weekend of the New Year—January 5, 2026.
This year, Nights of Lights began on Nov. 23 and lasted until Jan. 26, a span of 65 days.
Blonder revealed her plan at the end of a Monday commission meeting after recounting a conversation with a local resident.
An unnamed complainant told Blonder that someone parked their car in front of her home during the event, delaying her ability to get out by two hours.
She finally had the vehicle towed, prompting the owners to scream at her after returning to find their car missing.
“Same conversation I’ve had with so many of our residents,” she said. “And this is now into March. People have not forgotten about this at all.”
Blonder—who previously called elements of Nights of Lights “gaudy” and pushed for a crackdown—said she plans to sponsor a bill that would shorten the event.
“I’m going to direct staff—this is going to be very controversial—to prepare a resolution temporarily reducing Nights of Lights for the 2025 season from Thanksgiving weekend, ending the weekend after New Year, which would be the fifth of January 2026,” she said. “I want this significantly shortened.”
Blonder said she will sponsor the resolution and push for a seismic vote that would pit St. Augustine’s vocal tourism sector against residents clamoring for quiet.
Critics of Nights of Lights argue that it plunges the city into unmanageable chaos at the expense of locals.
Business owners counter that the bustling two-month stretch serves as a vital financial lifeline that keeps local merchants and their employees afloat.
The city is seeking an external consultant to help it manage Nights of Lights moving forward, but Blonder said that process would not impact this year’s event.
“We can’t just go forward with 2025 and make no changes and expect everything is going to get better on its own,” she said.
In calling for the curtailment, Blonder said a later start avoids overlap with hurricane season.
She also argued that the upcoming closure of the King Street Bridge would exacerbate this past year’s traffic woes.
Mayor Nancy Sikes-Kline, who said Nights of Lights was bringing St. Augustine to the brink of “over-tourism” at a January meeting, was not present Monday.
The commission will meet again in two weeks.
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24 Responses
Lets be serious, this person has NO idea on how to manage a business (aka City) and the move to shorten the Nights, if successful, will have a massive impact on local business owners and their employees, and will surely lead to layoffs. AND LESS tax dollars for those libs to spend…
She was elected by residents to do exactly this. The residents run the city, not the businesses downtown. Those complaining all own the businesses. Don’t believe me? Look it up
Agree. If anything, we need to explore parking and transport alternatives, but not shorten the festival!!
I agree. Seems like shortening the time will cram more people in
Nights of lights were not so long when we moved in 2006. The vice mayor is just bringing it back to the original plan.
Spot on Cali. Most these folks were not here in the 50’s & 60’s when local businesses and residents who needed jobs struggled in the after Christmas period until the summer tourist season started. Lets keep our local businesses strong!
Why does she want to hire an external consultant and waste taxpayer money?
The only thing that should be shortened is her tenure in politics for wanting to waste taxpayer money and take away money from local businesses.
External consultant or event manager? The COSA has event on staff AND, according to COSA, they are in the hole $300k for 2024 NOL “signature event”. GO FIGURE. They need to be DOGE’d.
As usual, people have short memories. Nights of Lights in the late 90’s and into the 2000’s ended on January 10. Any business that kept their lights on beyond that were paid a hasty visit by the city’s enforcement people. Downtown businesses have always cried about everything. If you have a shop or a restaurant and you need the extra two weeks to survive the year, there is something wrong with your business model, or your rent is just too damn high (which I’m sure it is; the only downtown entities that don’t cry are the landlords).
I don’t have a problem with the length. The lights are pretty and it gives people time to see them outside the big school holidays off. The Teeny Martini Bar lights though are gaudy. I think they are just starting to remove the Christmas decorations and it is mid March!
THE GRINCH STOLE NIGHTS OF LIGHTS!
The business owners are the ones asking for the shortening. They get overwhelmed and can not handle the crowds. Do your research before you hang this woman out to dry. Most of you have no idea what you are talking about. Traffic to get around anywhere near town takes hours. It’s unacceptable and they are trying to do something about it.
The length of NoL isn’t the issue. It’s the mixing of vehicular and pedestrian traffic at the same time all over town. Maybe look at other options such as shutting down certain roads during certain times or maybe get to building the Broudy’s parking garage on King. All shortening will do is cram even more people in at once. Good intention, bad execution.
Spot on Kyle.
It seems there are many issues. As a new resident , I was very excited to experience all of night of lights. I could see signage downtown to direct folks to side streets off St George, many shops on side streets go in noticed. Shame locals have to go early in the am to enjoy lights for lack of parking. Shame there are lots of cars stored in the parking garage year round, they should remove them for night of lights , and $20 what give with that ? Go to hourly
Someone stated that cities are businesses. No they are not.the city is to serve the residents of these cities. As a resident I am bothered that it is nearly impossible to get into old town for such an extended time. Bad enough that all our tax money goes to St John and Nicotee! Seriously, when we first moved here there were no NoL and downtown was amazing. There were only cars and horse carraiges, now we have trolleys with 3/4 cars, golf carts and bicycles pulling passengers and zero traffic control.
The most recent article has the county warning of an economic downturn with tourism decreasing.
So why is Blonder trying to cut something that brings in tourists?
I worked downtown during the Nights of Lights and it was pure chaos. First of all you need more bathroom facilities. Everyone came in our establishment looking for a bathroom. It was insane. A 10 minute drive home took me an hour and a half. Not fun. Also my suggestion. No cars. Shuttle everyone in. The people and the cars were everywhere. Too many people in our beautiful Saint Augustine.
Shortening might help the weariness of the NOL. Shuttles on more nights than just the weekends and a shuttle location further south than Broudys could alleviate some congestion. Perhaps limit the traffic of cars that just come to drive around downtown to see the lights. Emergency vehicles and law enforcement get stuck in traffic also. We have issues that need attention during NOL.
The Nights of Lights event is a raucous circus type event that cause’s chaos to the residents and communities. Multiple long traffic lines and jams, emergency ambulance and police response times, increased police and firemen services required, alcohol abuse, neighborhood noise, more petty crime, street and sidewalk trash, the need to increase taxes to pay for added city expenses. Yes business’s may like it because of the big profits to be made. The negative impact to the communities should not be tolerated. I suggest that it be decreased to a tolerant extent.
I’d rather get rid of it than pay more taxes. We St Augustine residents already pay almost double what the cou ty tax payers pay. And for what???!!!? More traffic! NO MORE TAXES
This feels like this writing is dividing our community. We can come together without words like “bombshell.” We can make a plan to celebrate a beautiful event. There is a path without hurting each other.
Where is the st Augustine chamber of commerce???
Why haven’t we heard from the Chamber on Nights of Lights policy ?
The elected city government represents its constituents- / residents, the chamber of commerce represents businesses interests !
There should be an ongoing meeting, discussion and negations between the city and chamber on every issue especially Nights of Lights policy.
What’s going on here ?
If only there were some way to limit the number of people coming into the area on a specific night.
Perhaps an on-line request made for a pass for a certain evening for a specific number of people. You would still have to pay for parking, but would have to show that pass to the parking attendant, and perhaps the attendant could issue a wristband of a particular color or with a date on it. And if the inner streets were blocked off to cars, there would be no parking on the local streets to inconvenience the local residents. This is a wonderful experience which is why so many people like to see it. I just feel that by shortening the time of the NOL will only make the area more congested for that shortened time period.