With just days before St. Augustine’s streets illuminate for Nights of Lights, residents shared both excitement for the bustling holiday season and apprehension over imminent crowds and a shortened schedule.
For enthusiasts, Nights of Lights is a special tradition unique to the nation’s oldest city.
St. Johns County families, along with visitors from around the world, travel to the historic downtown to revel in dazzling displays and teeming streets.
Tommy Hall, a resident of five years who attended Flagler College in the 1980s, works for Old Town Trolley Tours. He summarized the sentiment many locals share about the upcoming festival.
“It’s stressful,” he said. “But we love it. I mean, it’s such a beautiful time.”
Another Old Town Trolley Tours employee, sales representative Bobbie Sorel, echoed her colleague, saying the festival is “hectic, but fun.”
Jim Moran, an associate at the Shell Shop on St. George Street, said he enjoys the spirit of the season – but doesn’t look forward to the “gridlocked” traffic that accompanies the event.
One St. Augustine visitor from Daytona Beach, who asked to be identified only as Marge, said the quaint city she adores becomes “crowded.”
“There’s too many people,” she said simply.
A barista at Relampago Coffee Lab on Spanish Street, who declined to be named, was a bit more blunt.
“It’s unbearable,” she said.
Having grown up in St. Augustine, she’s used to the traffic during the holiday season, but last year was the last straw.
She said on a particularly packed day, it took two hours to drive home to her residence just a few miles away in nearby West King neighborhood.
Officials shortened the Nights of Lights festival this year to address traffic concerns, but some local businesses aren’t happy about it.
For the past three decades, Nights of Lights has run from the week before Thanksgiving to the last week in January. This year, nearly two weeks were cut from the festival.
Hall, of Old Town Trolley, said the plan was unwise.
“I wish they’d kept it open longer,” he said. “It’s a good time for merchants because they can still make money.”
Kerry Nelson and his wife, Sherry, opened High Tide Gallery, located off San Marco Avenue, earlier this year.
The festival is especially meaningful for the couple, as it begins every year right around their wedding anniversary on Nov. 16. Nelson said he remembers the lighting ceremony occurring just down the street on their wedding day in 1994.
Nelson expressed frustration with the shortened schedule for this year’s festival.
“That’s upsetting, because we were preparing for that,” he said. “There are slow seasons down here, so we need that to help us make up the difference,” he said.
He also believes the change won’t solve the city’s crowding problems.
“It’s probably just gonna be more crowded while it is open,” he said. “We’re gonna get the same amount of visitors in less time.”
Irving Kass, owner of the St. George Inn and Bin 39 across from the old city gates, shares Nelson’s concerns.
Kass, who also serves as chair of the Tourist Development Council, said he’s worried about “the people who are holding on for dear life.”
“What the city has done is they’ve gone to all the employees in town and said, ‘We’re going to reduce your payroll,’” he said.
Kass asserted that the city could ultimately lose millions of dollars due to the shortening.
“It equates to about $10 million in economic activity a day. That’s a big deal,” Kass said.
Crowds, traffic, and shortened hours aside, locals say they’ll still find themselves downtown — stuck in traffic, maybe, but under three million twinkling lights all the same.
