THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 30, 1997 TAG: 9701300347
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 58 lines
The glitter of those holiday light shows at the Beach, Norfolk and Newport News may have have been dimmed slightly this year by Mother Nature.
Eight or nine days of rain during the six-week run of the shows reduced attendance and gate receipts, spokesmen in all three cities said.
While all three cities experienced a drop in ticket sales between Nov. 22 and Jan. 5, only Virginia Beach was willing to offer specific dollar figures.
At the Beach, where the Holiday Lights show was staged for the second year on the Boardwalk overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, attendance dropped from 44,256 to 36,655 vehicles and ticket sales dropped from $309,792 to $284,724 from 1995.
``We had about eight or nine days of rain that kind of hurt us,'' said Bill Reid, of Cellar Door Entertainment, the company that oversees the Oceanfront program. ``But even though we had fewer cars, we did almost as well (in sales) as last year.''
The light shows at the Beach and Norfolk Botanical Garden were marketed together on Cox Cable programs. Both shows charged $7 per vehicle on weekdays and $9 on weekends. Newport News charged $6 per car Sundays through Thursdays; $7 Fridays and Saturdays; $25 per bus Sundays through Thursdays and $30 on Fridays and Saturdays.
Reid attributed the stability of the Beach receipts to the fact that rates rose on weekend nights. Last year Cellar Door charged a flat rate of $7 per vehicle, regardless of the day of the week.
Paid attendance at the Garden of Lights show at the Botanical Garden in Norfolk was 21,000, down 3,000 from 1995, said Peter Lawrence, director of marketing for the garden.
Lawrence declined to reveal 1996 receipt figures, but acknowledged that they were down from the preceding year.
``We hesitate to give those out because we're involved in litigation with our vendor,'' he said.
Norfolk Botanical Garden, a private, non-profit organization, is involved in cross suits with Carpenter Decorating Co., a North Carolina company that provides light designs for a number of localities across the nation, including Norfolk and Virginia Beach.
The first suit was filed in March of 1996 against the botanical garden for allegedly not paying its bills. In October of 1996 the garden sued Carpenter Decorating for allegedly breaching a contract by setting up a competing holiday light show at the Beach.
Attendance was down 7,500 vehicles from 1995 for the Celebration of Lights Show, which winds through two miles of Newport News Park, said Renee Popernack, assistant promotional coordinator for the program.
The 4-year-old show attracted 32,000 in 1995 and 24,500 in 1996, she said. But she declined to offer data on gate receipts for those years.
``We don't want to make any comparisons with other cities,'' she said, ``because I'm sure we arrive at our figures somewhat differently than they do.''
Despite poor attendance on rainy nights, the Newport News show, which is operated by the city Parks and Recreation Department, was deemed financially successful, Popernack said. ``We're going to go ahead and buy new exhibits and move ahead to expand the show next year.''