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Event Information:
The
BMO Harris Bank Magnificent
Mile Lights Festival, the nation’s
largest evening holiday celebration,
takes place in Chicago on Saturday,
November 17. The event includes a
grand Tree-Lighting Parade down
Michigan Avenue marshaled by Mickey
Mouse and Minnie Mouse from Walt
Disney World Resort in Florida and a
spectacular fireworks display over
the Chicago River.
The
Magnificent Mile Lights Festival is
a holiday festival that takes place
annually the Saturday before
Thanksgiving along Chicago's
Magnificent Mile. It is hosted by
the Greater North Michigan Avenue
Association. The Lights Festival
began modestly in 1949 when members
of The Greater North Michigan Avenue
Association installed a 50-foot-tall
Christmas tree, decorated with over
1,500 lights and a six-foot star
topper, into the Water Tower Park.
In 1959, the Saks Fifth Avenue store
replaced its historical holiday
decorations with Italian white
lights, stringing them on the
branches of the elm trees in front
of the store. The trend was
continued by neighboring stores and
has grown in both popularity and
scope into the Lights Festival we
know today.
The
festival is focused on the
illumination of more than one
million lights on two hundred trees
along North Michigan Avenue, from
Oak Street on the North to Wacker
Drive/the Chicago River on the
South. Other activities include live
stage shows, the Christkindlmarket,
and street entertainers. While other
celebrities (Betty Grable)
have hosted the events, Disney's
Mickey Mouse has acted as master of
ceremonies in recent years. After
the lighting procession, shopping
hours are extended to start the
holiday season.
Michigan Avenue is a major
north-south street in Chicago which
runs at 100 east (except for one
private block that runs at 125 east)
south of the Chicago River and at
132 East north of the river from
12628 south to 950 north in the
Chicago street address system. As
the home of the Chicago Water Tower,
the Art Institute of Chicago,
Millennium Park, and the Magnificent
Mile, it is a street well known to
Chicago natives as well as tourists
to the city. Michigan Avenue also is
the main commercial street of
Streeterville. It includes all of
the Michigan Boulevard Historic
District and most of the Michigan–Wacker
Historic District, including the
scenic urban space anchored by the
Michigan Avenue Bridge.
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