The Fox Cities Festival of Lights in Harrison illuminates the night. It’s a new holiday light show held at the Darboy Community Park.
Powering about two-thirds of these LED bulbs is a renewable energy microgrid.
“We needed power way in the back where it’s like 700 feet from the main panel to back there and it’s like, that’s a lot of extension cords to run. So we thought, let’s go that route and it’s kind of grown from there to be like, hey, this is really cool,” Fox Cities Festival of Lights founder Shaun Forslund said.
The microgrid is unique for commercial light displays.
“As far as I know we’re the only commercial display like this in the country using renewable energy to power it,” Forslund said.
Faith Technologies and Excellerate donated the microgrid — and organizers are already looking ahead.
“Next year maybe we’ll look at running the entire display off of solar panels,” Forslund said.
This is the Fox Cities Festival of Lights’ first year.
“We wanted to build displays like the PAC, and Little Chute Windmill, and the Grignon Mansion to put a holiday theme twist on different landmarks in the Fox Cities,” Forslund said.
It’s free to visit, but donations are encouraged. Every night has a different group from the community volunteering.
“Whatever we bring in, they get a big portion of that. It helps them as well plus it helps us get volunteers,” Forslund said.
The Fox Cities Festival of Lights will be open on Fridays and Saturdays from 5-9 p.m. until December 14. They will be open every night from 5-9 p.m. December 20-31.
