The Lions Festival of Lights is Calgary’s biggest drive-by light show featuring 500,000 lights! The 2024/2025 season marks the 38th year of this beautiful colourful festival.
Christmas Lights across the city are popular among all the locals in Calgary. More and more lights pop up every year, but one thing is sure every year β Lions Festival of Lights will light up Confederation Park.
While you can drive by the park and see some lights, itβs nothing compared to visiting the actual park.
Lions Festival of Lights details:
- Dates: November 23, 2024 β January 8, 2025
- GRAND OPENING: November 23rd, starting at 5 pm with hot chocolate, ice sculptures, and fireworks
- Time: 5:30 pm β 12 am
- Location: Corner of 14 Street & 24 Avenue NW, Calgary
- Entrance: Free
Visiting the festival is our winter tradition with our little boy. Heβs mesmerized by all the lights at Christmas, and I think all parents agree that seeing your kidβs face light up from happiness is the best thing ever.
We liked Zoolights as well, but the Lions Festival of Lights is much bigger with a cozy family charm, so we visit the Calgary Zoo for animals.
I love several things about the festival:
- The light display is massive
- Itβs 99% green
- Itβs a free event run entirely by volunteers
- You can sled down the hill with colourful lights around you
- You can cross-country ski across the park
Apart from classic Christmas figures, you can see several light displays with βMerry Christmasβ in different languages, lit-up teepee, many trees with Christmas lights, and a giant lit-up bear on the hill (reindeer is from the previous year).
Tips for visiting
- For the exact directions to the Lions Festival of Lights, click on this pin on the map; itβs the main entrance.
- Thereβs no dedicated parking for the Lions Festival of Lights. Parking on the streets fills up quickly, so I recommend arriving in daylight, going sledding, waiting until dark to see the lights, or driving around to find a spot.
- Bring hot chocolate in a thermos to fully immerse yourself in the Christmas spirit.
- I’m happy to say that this season, there are toilet booths by the entrance! So you can spend hours having fun sledding or watching the lights and don’t have to worry about finding a place to go, especially if you visit with kids. That’s a great improvement to this already amazing event.
- If youβre visiting with kids, it takes approximately 2 hours to walk around all the light displays.
- There’s a trail for cross-country skiing around the park that is free to use.
- I highly recommend bringing sleds; it’s the prettiest sledding hill in Calgary at night.
FOR INSPIRATION
How to say Merry Christmas in 100 of the Worldβs most spoken languages
Pictures of the Lions Festival of Lights shortly after sunset and in the dark (season 2021/2022)
Lights as seen from the street:
New pictures & displays at the Lions Festival of Lights added in season 2022/2023
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Hi!!
Do you know if there is a stroller friendly path or is just walking on the snow?
There’s no path in this part of the park. Even though an all terrain stroller might work on the snow, I would suggest taking sleighs instead.