East Peoria taking the chill out of annual light festival

EAST PEORIA, Ill. -- Central Illinois winters can be so frightful that one of the state's largest holiday light festivals is moving indoors, hoping turnout might be even more delightful this year.

Organizers say bringing events in from the cold could boost attendance -- already around 120,000 -- by up to 25 percent at the annual East Peoria Festival of Lights, which kicks off a monthlong run today with a parade of lighted floats.

"We're noticing that people don't really want to be outdoors much, anyway ... I think once they experience some of these things indoors they'll like it more and they'll be more inclined to come back and make repeat visits," said festival coordinator Jill Peterson.

Peterson said the biggest move is a nightly laser show launched last year, when holiday revelers stood outside for about a half-hour watching images of dancing snowmen and Santas that were projected onto a 60-foot inflatable dome.

"It was really neat, like a giant animated Christmas ornament, and people liked it. But it was horrendously cold last December, unusually cold, and it was almost too cold to stand outside and watch it," Peterson said.

Teresa Stimeling, 40, of East Peoria, says she'll likely take her 2-year-old son to one of the three nightly laser shows now they're moving to a heated, indoor theater in this city of about 22,000 people along the Illinois River.

Others, though, say a little shivering is as much a part of the holidays as shopping and eggnog.

"It's not a bad idea, but there's nothing like Mother Nature," said Anthony Little, 50, of Peoria. "Just don't stay out too long."

The festival draws people from around the country -- not to mention $50,000 for the local power company.

Moving the laser show indoors, along with a one-night sing-along that draws more than 400 people every year, adds heat to most of the festival's main attractions.

People already were in warm cars for the event's biggest draw, a two-mile drive through a city park filled with animated exhibits ranging from a candy cane factory to a giant, simulated fireworks display. The festival's popular carnival rides have always been indoors.

Some walk-through attractions remain, including displays at a riverfront park that feature a 35-foot Ferris wheel lighted to look like a Christmas wreath.

East Peoria's festival planners aren't the only ones thinking of visitors' comfort.

About 125,000 holiday visitors get a taste of both inside and out every year at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo, where a host of lighted displays shine both outdoors and in heated animal houses during ZooLights, a monthlong holiday event that opened Friday.

Brian Anderson, director of events at the zoo, said the mix of indoor and outdoor exhibits offers visitors easy refuge if Chicago's sometimes bitter December chill gets to be too much.

"We probably have an advantage over festivals like East Peoria's. If you get a little cold, you just go into one of the houses and get warm. You can stay out as long or as short a time as you want," Anderson said.

Peterson said luring people outside has become more challenging during the East Peoria festival's 22-year run.

"I think there's a lot more distractions in our homes to keep us inside. When the festival started, we didn't have Nintendo, we didn't have PCs, we didn't have all these TV channels," Peterson said.

Biting cold, she says, is just another reason to stay indoors. "I've always been told you can't have fun if you're freezing ... and we want people to have fun."

Health officials say short stints in the cold are uncomfortable but not dangerous as long as temperatures and wind chills aren't too low and people dress in layers, keeping skin covered to avoid frostbite.

Chris Miller, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Lincoln, says moving East Peoria's festival events indoors will likely be a draw because most people prefer warm and dry over weathering the elements.

But Miller said he also hears complaints that Illinois winters aren't what they used to be, with less cold and snow.

"There's some truth to that," Miller said. "If you look back to the '70s and early '80s, we had some extremely snowy and cold winters -- records that still stand ... We've settled into more typical winters, but the comparison makes a normal winter seem mild."

Forecasts call for another mild winter, with temperatures about five degrees above normal and about half of the usual snowfall, Miller said.

"I don't want to mislead people," Miller said. "It doesn't mean we won't get a stretch in January or February of subzero temperatures and snow and ice. Just not as frequently."