Thousands of families look forward to the annual light show at the Orange County Arboretum each year. But this season, just as staff and volunteers started to get ready to set up for the annual display, a kitchen fire in October badly damaged their main building on the park grounds in Campbell Hall.
County employees say the damages won’t be fixed for months but rain or shine the show will go on.
“There’s no music this year because of the fire, but generally we have 10,000 - 20,000 people show up,” said Orange County Parks Commissioner Jim Brooks.
Brooks says the free event will be a bit different this season since the building is not in use.
The indoor portion of the event that had snacks and cocoa is canceled, but there’s still hundreds of outdoor displays with more than 50,000 lights for folks to see on park paths.
The light show at the arboretum runs weekends only through Dec. 18 and evenings daily until Dec. 23.