An electric wonderland of blinking lights and holiday sights could be coming to Mountain Home this December.
The Mountain Home Advertising and Promotion Commission voted Thursday to provide $30,000 to help seed the establishment of a massive drive-thru display of holiday lights on the campus of Arkansas State University-Mountain Home this winter. The project, presented to the A+P Commission by Mountain Home Mayor Hillrey Adams and ASUMH Chancellor Dr. Robin Myers, is estimated to require about $200,000 to establish.
A similar holiday light display at Batesville, dubbed “White River Wonderland,” saw 60,000 cars paying $10 per car drive through that display in December. That display returns every year and is fully self- sufficient, using the money generated from one year’s admissions to fund the following year’s display.
Adams says Mountain Home’s display could become part of the Holiday Trail of Lights promoted by the Arkansas Department of Tourism. There are similar large holiday displays in northeast Arkansas and in Branson, but not one in between those locations.
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Adams and Myers said that they estimated that the Mountain Home display would require 25,000 cars at $10 per vehicle to break even. The Mountain Home display could theoretically open the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving and remain up through the first week in January, Adams and Myers said.
Members of the A+P Commission voted 6-0 with one absent to provide $30,000 towards the project. A+P funds are generated from the collection of a 2% sales tax on all Mountain Home hotel and motel receipts. The commission currently has about $172,000 in the bank, and now has about $130,000 earmarked to help fund area events scheduled for later this year.
Commission chairman Ricky Johnson talks the idea of Mountain Home becoming a winter destination spot because of its holiday light display.
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Conceptual images shown to the commission Thursday showed a circular display that takes motorists on a loop around the ASUMH campus. The route would be divided up among several different themes, with sample themes displayed Thursday including “Candyland,” “Toyland,” “Penguin Winterland,” and “Victorian Christmas.”
Opportunities would exist for area businesses to sponsor certain sections of the display and possibly see their business names and logos incorporated into the displays.
It was undecided Thursday whether the display would be operated by the city, the college or a third party. A professional production company that typically produces concerts and other large theatrical events would be used to create, install and tear down the display. That production company would provide two people to manage the lights for the duration of the display, but would not supervise the whole operation.
A production company would require that organizers sign a multi-year contract for the project, with the most likely being a three-year commitment.
Myers says that the city and college could build the displays in-house, but the results would lack that professional touch.
“Between us and the city, we could get all our staffs together, buy some lights and put something up. But it would look like we bought some lights and put them up,” he says. “We don’t know what we’re doing, not like these guys do.”
Adams says that the city is aiming for that “wow” factor that only a professional production can deliver.
“I don’t want someone to make the trip to come see the lights and then be disappointed with it,” Adams says. “You’re going to have a hard time getting that person to come back for any other type of event after that. I want them to be blown away with it, and for them to then go tell their friends about how they should come see it, too.”
Adams and Myers told commissioners they hoped to have a final decision by July on whether or not the display would go forward or not. If the event does come to fruition, then preparations would have to begin in October to be ready by the holiday season.
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