Revolting Children, Santa, other usual suspects: 2023 Canopy of Lights in downtown Bloomington
On Friday night, downtown Bloomington was lit up brighter than Rudolph’s nose on Christmas Eve, and the square was packed with people, spilling onto Kirkwood Avenue, which was shut down for the occasion.
It was the traditional day-after-Thanksgiving extravaganza to flip the switch on the strands of lights that connect the courthouse building to buildings around the square—The Canopy of Lights.
Taking the edge of the 36 F degree temperatures were costumed characters, and live radio broadcasts courtesy of B97 & Hoosier Country 105, served up with hot chocolate, cookies, and kettle corn.
The Bloomington Brass Band took the Kirkwood Avenue stage to play a set of holiday standards.
Jim Inman emceed the program, which included remarks from Monroe County commissioners Julie Thomas and Penny Githens, who had teamed up with the Hoosier Hills Food Bank to sponsor the Canopy of Lights food drive. Donation barrels for the food drive will remain inside the courthouse rotunda through Tuesday, Nov. 28.
Lisa Empson, with IU Health, told the crowd that this year marks the 37th year for the health provider’s Light Up A Life campaign. She invited those who wanted to remember someone to drop by the east side of the square to add their name to the donor board.
Kids from Windfall Dancers, in the form of elves wielding giant candy canes, danced across the stage to the tune of “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas.”
Following the dancers was a contingent from the cast of Constellation Stage + Screen’s upcoming production of Matilda the Musical. A chorus of kids belting out “Revolting Children,” which is an iconic tune from the show, got one of the bigger cheers of the night.
Also getting a big cheer was Inman’s announcement midway through the program that a lost child had been reunited with its grownups. Early in the evening, Inman had alerted the crowd that a child had been found, who was looking for its parents.
Leading the crowd with the sing-along favorites “Jingle Bells” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was Bloomington mayor John Hamilton, who was joined on stage by family and friends. Hamilton wrapped up with the walk-on song for the man in the red suit: “Here Comes Santa Claus!”
Santa led the crowd with a countdown from 10 to the flipping of the switch.
Based on a Google Earth measurement of the area where most of the people were standing (30,000 square feet) and a medium crowd density of around 6 square feet per person, a reasonable Canopy of Lights crowd estimate for 2023 would be around 5,000 people.
Among those in attendance on Friday night was Kyla Cox Deckard, who had some insight into a plausible crowd figure, based on her service on Bloomington’s board of public works. She pointed The B Square to the meeting information packet for a recent board meeting, when the street closure for Kirkwood Avenue was approved.
According to the staff memo that was included in the packet for the Nov. 8 board of public works meeting, about 5,000 visitors were expected to attend.
Photos: Canopy of Lights 2023 (Bloomington, Indiana)
