Lights On Stratford gets federal funding boost

Destination Stratford has gotten a boost for what is now one of its biggest events of the year.

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The Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) just announced an investment of $200,000 for the tourism agency’s Lights On Stratford festival. This funding will be used to purchase equipment and lights, as well as help fund some commissioned installations by both domestic and international artists, executive director Zac Gribble said.

“The upper levels. . . investing in arts and culture is critically important. We’re very grateful for the funding that we’ve received, but we would like to acknowledge that we really need more for arts and culture coming from multiple levels of government, especially in a city with such a critically important visitor economy, which really links on arts and culture,” Gribble said.

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Lights On Stratford, which runs from mid-December to mid-January each year, started during the first year of the pandemic when local people employed in the arts, like lighting designers and prop builders were temporarily out of work, Gribble said. In its first year, the festival ran four light installations, and welcomed around 30,000 visitors, the majority of which were local. The event has steadily grown since that inaugural season, with the most recent iteration seeing approximately 76,000 visitors, with a roughly 50-50 split between local residents and people who came from out of town.

The announced funding was part of more than $1.3 million awarded to 10 organizations across Ontario announced by Tourism Minister Soraya Martinez Ferrada.

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“The local tourism economy. . . across southern Ontario is fueled by community events large and small. Investing in the growth of festivals, events and tourism operators directly supports the growth of regional economies while fostering community spirit,” Ferrada said in a press release.

Lights On, which is held at locations throughout the city, including the downtown core and Tom Patterson Island, has required a lot of growth learning from the Destination Stratford team, but has also seen more community involvement and partners each year, Gribble noted. Nearly 50 percent of the funding for the festival comes from partners and grants, as well as through corporate sponsorships.

“We’re feeling a lot of gratitude for the incredible community support that Lights On Stratford gets from local businesses and local industry. So that, combined with support from institutions such as FedDev, really make it possible,” Gribble said.

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“We’re really excited to be entering our fifth year,” Gribble added. “We kind of treat the city as a stage, and we bring light art and light experiences to that stage in our public spaces. . . . We have a very seasonal tourism, visitor economy in Stratford that’s really centered around five months of the year, and we’re really focused (on) the other seven months of the year. We want Lights On Stratford to serve as a cultural anchor tenant, so that there’s more and more culture and events and festivals that happen in the winter and the shoulder seasons.”

While planning is still underway for this year’s event, Destination Stratford officials will be making an announcement on the specific installations in the near future.

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