THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 20, 1995 TAG: 9511200073
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LORI A. DENNEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines
When Virginia Beach flips the switch to its seaside light show Wednesday, motorists will cruise down the Boardwalk for the first time since it was built nearly seven decades ago.
Two miles of the Boardwalk will sparkle and flash with leaping dolphins, animated fishermen and flying sailboats.
The colorful display, costing $700,000 - nearly three times as much as it did to build the original Boardwalk - shows just how eager the beachfront community is to attract off-season tourism.
``They (the merchants) have long wanted something like this. The goal is to make this a year-round destination,'' said Mary Pat Fortier, executive director of the Virginia Beach Hotel and Motel Association. ``That, and it seems to be a secret yearning of everyone who lives here to drive on the Boardwalk legally.''
The holiday happening, Holiday Lights at the Beach, features some 250,000 lights sculpted into archways, animated sea animals and fish.
Sightseers will line up near Rudee Inlet to gain entrance to the Boardwalk through an archway of dolphins at 8th Street. The showcase of lights continues north to 33rd Street.
Light poles are adorned with shells and other small, colorfully lighted creatures from the end of the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway along 21st Street and on Atlantic and Pacific avenues. An illuminated King Neptune and a gingerbread house are set up at the Visitor's Center on the Expressway.
The city hopes the attraction will pay for itself with proceeds from the $7-per-vehicle fee, said Fortier.
If turnouts for other light shows are any indication, the Boardwalk could be packed with wintertime visitors. The Norfolk Botanical Garden, for instance, made $60,000 in profit from its light show last year.
Cars have never been permitted on the Boardwalk since the old wooden-plank walkway was replaced in 1928 with the concrete bulkhead and promenade. The majority of today's concrete Boardwalk was completed then at a cost of about $250,000.
The light show will be closed on Christmas Eve; on New Year's Eve, the Boardwalk will close to drivers but open free of charge to pedestrians.
Funding for the festival of lights was approved last June, when the City Council allocated $700,000 from the TGIF tourism reserve fund, said Fortier. Beach Events, the city's event coordinator, is overseeing the show.
Two other light shows open this week.
Newport News Park, on the Peninsula, will open its third holiday light show, Celebration in Lights, on Thursday.
The park features a two-mile stretch of road illuminated by some 300,000 lights outlining themes, such as the Candy Cane Factory and Santa's Enchanted Kingdom.
Norfolk Botanical Garden's second year of Garden of Lights features 200,000 lights built around a four seasons theme. Nearly $30,000 worth of improvements have been added to this year's show, including more animated animals, like a fluttering hummingbird.
For the Botanical Garden, the winter event has become a primary money-maker, said garden spokeswoman Jill Doczi.
That is exactly the type of success officials at the Oceanfront are looking for.
``If it's the success we're praying for,'' said Fortier, the city will break even ``sooner rather than later.'' ILLUSTRATION: DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH/ The Virginian-Pilot
Vehicles, like coursers, will be able to drive, not fly, for the
first time ever down the Boardwalk beneath a festive panorama of
holiday lights beginning Wednesday and running through Jan. 7.
Light Tours
Virginia Beach's Holiday Lights at the Beach will be held from 5
to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and
Saturday, beginning Wednesday and running through Jan. 7, on the
Boardwalk from 8th Street to 33rd Street.
The cost is $7 per car (cash only). No vehicles larger than
15-passenger vans are allowed.
For information, call 491-7866.
Norfolk Botanical Garden's Garden of Lights display will be held
from 5:30 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 5:30 to 11 p.m.
Friday and Saturday beginning Wednesday and running through Jan. 1,
at the gardens on Azalea Garden Road.
The cost is $7 per car Monday through Thursday and $9 on
weekends. Buses cannot be accommodated.
For information, call 441-5830.
Newport News Park's Celebration in Lights will be held from 5:30
to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 5:30 to 11 p.m. Friday and
Saturday beginning Thursday and running through Jan. 1, at the park,
at the corner of Fort Eustis Boulevard and Jefferson Avenue.
The cost is $6 per car and $25 per bus.
For information, call (804) 247-8451.
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by CNB