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Marshall saw decrease in WOL attendance


By Jessica Harker jharker@marshallnewsmessenger.com

Attendance at the 2022 Wonderland of Lights was down from the last two years, according to Main Street Manager Lacy Burson.

Burson presented a full report about how the 2022 Wonderland of Lights annual festival went last year to the Marshall City Council on Thursday this week, giving information on the festivals attendance, expenses and revenue, volunteers and planned events.

According to Burson, attendance for the 2022 festival was down from the last two years, with 73,500 reported attendees last year, and 93,00 reported in 2021 and over 100,000 reported in 2020.

Councilmember Amanda Abraham remarked that a portion of the low attendance numbers for last year’s festival can be attributed to the unusually cold weather that occurred at the time.

Attendance for the opening ceremony event and the annual holiday parade were also down slightly in 2022 from the two previous years, though attendance for the Christmas Market was up over 2,000 from the previous year.

Burson attributed the spike in attendance for the market to holding the event on the third Saturday, rather than a Sunday as was done in 2021.

For the 2021 festival, the city was able to incur about $210,000 in total income from the festival, including $58,000 already received in monetary donations and more to be collected. About $8,000 was through food truck fees, private parties and merchandise sales, as well as $168,000 in revenue from ticket sales. The city also received about $11,000 in in-kind sponsorships.

Expenditures for the 2022 festival totaled about $210,000, with $82,000 spent on the skating rink, including the rental of the tent and the purchase on a number of new skates. A total of $45,000 was spent on Santa’s Village, including the building of new ramps to make the attraction ADA compliant. The slide, carousal and train were $17,000 in total costs, with the slide being a onetime purchase by the city.





An additional $3,000 was spent on signage, $2,000 on merchandise, $3,500 on entertainment for the opening ceremony, $17,000 for rentals, $3,000 for decorations, $10,000 in miscellaneous expenses, $1,300 on part-time employees, $1,600 on cell phones and an additional $24,000 from Wonderland 2021 expenditures.

“Our expenses for 2022 are inflated somewhat from expenses from 2021,” Abraham said. Burson further explained that often the take down costs of the previous years festival occur in the following year, and are therefore counting on the new year’s Wonderland of Lights report.

Additionally, some items listed on this years report were one-time costs to the city, including the new ramps built, new decorations, and the addition of the new slide to the attractions offered.

Events, Volunteers and Requests

During the 2022 Wonderland of Lights ceremony, the city offered a wide range of events to participants, including the regular ETBU on Ice event, the annual cruise night, the wassail walk and a performance by Randy C Moore. New attractions for the year included the addition of a slide, a new merchandise booth, ride and slide arm bands, food trucks and the addition of new skates.

Leading up to the festival last year, Burson said that the city sponsored seven work days where volunteers came out to help get attractions and decorations ready for the festival, as well as a number of events where volunteers came to assist with the hanging of lights and other decorations.

Burson said that the festival received a lot of assistance from East Texas Baptist University students volunteering to assist setting up downtown, as well as Marshall High School JROTC students, who volunteered every night of the festival.

During and immediately following the 2022 festival, Burson said that the city also posted a number of surveys for the community to fill out, which included an option for suggestions.

She said the a number of people requested bringing back the dancing lights on the courthouse, bringing more food trucks to the festival, lighting up a larger area and adding more displays, and locating food trucks closer to other attractions.

Burson also stated that the city will also need to consider a number of issues before next year’s festival, including refurbishing the carousel horses, adding additional lighting and getting the chiller for the ice skating rink as part of its needed maintenance.

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