 "Photo: Hanlly Sam")
The Zilker Park Trail of Lights has been an Austin tradition for 43 years and is a long-standing family tradition of mine that I’m sure I share with nearly all students and Austinites alike.
I’ve braved the cold, parking issues, and throngs of people and strollers in order to view the dazzling array of sights and sounds every year, as long as I can remember.
However, I will not be attending this year, because the Austin City Council has downsized the Trail of Lights and is effectively destroying the spirit behind the tradition.
The City of Austin has decided that this year’s event will still be free to the public, but will be scaled back in order to save money, moved to another section of the park and renamed the “2009 Zilker Tree Holiday Festival.”
The trail will be scaled back to the point of not only half the number of displays located around the Zilker Hillside Theatre on a foot trail, it will only last nine days (Dec. 13-21) instead of the typical two weeks it normally runs.
Running the trail for only one week is a travesty. The trail was super crowded in the past, and I can only imagine the difficulty of trying to squeeze in the thousands of attendees in less time.
I’ve decided not to attend just because of that reason. I do not feel that searching for parking, and walking in an even larger crowd of people will be worth a shorter trail.
The Parks and Recreation Department will really need to up their game and find businesses and organizations that will provide outstanding displays this year if they want to keep Austinites interested and entice them to continue attending future events.
However, that may be a huge hurdle for them, considering the city council is only willing to pay a third of its normal budget this year. In previous years, the Trail of Lights has cost the city up to a million dollars.
The trail is one of many local noteworthy events, and it is a shame that the council is not able to afford to maintain such a tradition.
The council is completely at fault for ruining the Trail of Lights simply because they took too long to find a private vendor to run the site.
It is a disgrace that the council waited until last month in order to begin accepting bids from event planning companies.
The cost of the Trail of Lights has been a well known issue since last year’s event. For the council to wait until two months before this year’s event is appalling.
The public is going to suffer because of the lack of initiative and planning by the council. They should have began planning for the event or seeking a private vendor over the summer, instead of delaying the decision until there would not be enough time for anyone to plan and provide a substantial event for the public.
The council had approved charging up to $5 as an entrance fee earlier this year, but city officials said the decision for the city to operate a smaller display means that they will not have to charge an entrance fee. The charge to park will also be decreased to $10 per-car.
The only good decisions the council has made concerning this issue is that they are not altering the Zilker Tree event, and that this year’s trail will remain free.
However, to be honest, that is not remarkable. I would have gladly paid admission to either keep the trail the way it was or hire a private vendor to maintain it.
In order to keep the Trail of Lights an Austin tradition in the future, the council needs to make smarter decisions in a timely manner.
The only way to salvage this year’s event is to require the help of volunteers who are willing to sacrifice their time in order to maintain the same spirit instilled in the Trail of Lights into the new and unimproved “Zilker Holiday Tree Festival.”
Be the first to comment on this article!