The Chamber of Commerce is putting on a Lightfest at Memorial Park. The drive-through holiday light festival will be up from Dec. 7- Jan. 1, 2024. The event will be open to the public, for free, during Memorial Park’s open hours.
“In Norton, their festival is only drive-through, but here people could also walk if they wanted to,” said Megan Harvey, the Director of Main Street Wadsworth.
This is the first time they have held this event for the community. Memorial Park did not have enough electricity to produce the event, until this year, so now they are all ready to hold this inaugural event.
“Janie [Parish] saw in the plain dealer a couple of years ago about a suburb of Cleveland doing [an event where] people could sponsor a wire deer,” said Felicity Wilson, Chamber of Commerce Member Benefits Coordinator. “She thought that it would be really cool if we could do something like that here.”
Tree sponsors began registering in late July, and the last day of registration was Nov. 1.
The business’ trees will be up on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. The sponsors have until Dec. 5 to finish decorating their trees.
After registration opened, the amount of sponsors began to pour in. The Chamber of Commerce believed that they would get about 35 submissions. Once they hit that number, the support began to increase exponentially.
“A lot of them have been getting their ornaments and everything ready for months,” Harvey said.
All sponsors for this event are Main Street Wadsworth, The City of Wadsworth, The Wadsworth Public Library, Wolf Creek Graphic Designs, Wadsworth City Schools, and Lowe’s. Lowe’s gave a deeply discounted rate, so each tree sponsor will pay $125 for a seven-foot tall, fresh-cut tree; 600 string lights; a stand; and a sponsor sign..
“The trees will start at the Girl Scout House and go all the way down to the pavilion, and we might even go past that,” Wilson said.

There is going to be a kick-off celebration on Dec. 7, 2024, from 5-7 p.m. The Chamber of Commerce wants to have grand lighting, when they turn on all of the lights at once, at the beginning of the kick-off.

“We are hoping that this event is like the Thriller, where people come into Wadsworth and hang out downtown, and make it a whole night in Wadsworth,” Wilson said.
The Wadsworth Public Library will be bringing Santa. There will be hot cocoa and cookies and there will be a place to make ornaments for a memorial tree, to cherish loved ones.
At the Girl Scout House, the Girl Scout Troops will be singing Christmas carols. The house will be decorated with a garland and a wreath displayed. These supplies were donated by Moyer’s Nursery.
“We have never done this in Wadsworth before, and Memorial Park is underutilized,” Wilson said. “So now we are hoping that with the Lightfest, it’ll bring folks to the park.”
For the future, they plan to continue this event annually. Also, they want to add more decorations and bigger features to the Lightfest once they have the funds to do so.
“From the Main Street side, [we would like to] add more to tie in both the park and downtown Wadsworth,” Harvey said.
The community has expressed interest and excitement about this event, and 82 people have signed up to sponsor trees.
“[The most rewarding part of organizing this event] is the response from the community and the enthusiasm,” Wilson said. “It’s been really cool to see how excited Wadsworth is.”
To learn more about this event, go to The Chamber of Commerce’s website.