Festival of Lights Delivers for Twin Falls Merchants
Can we safely say this is the busiest night in downtown Twin Falls? The Festival of Lights Parade (Christmas parade for you regular folks) is two weeks away. I watched the parade on St. Patrick’s Day (from the shelter of O’Dunken’s where I was eating a calzone) and it doesn’t compare to the upcoming event. The crowd isn’t nearly as large.
The Festival of Lights is good for downtown. The Western Days parade is massive but is a daytime event and takes a different route.
If I owned a business in the old part of town, I would be sure and keep the lights on well into the evening. You’ve got a built-in customer base.
I used to live in a city where the downtown merchants often closed during parades (and then complain about the lack of foot traffic in their part of the community) and thousands of potential customers were left on the street, however. One local shop was open one very cold and blustery day and we dropped in and bought blankets for the entire family. Other people along the parade route wanted to know where we found the blankets. It wasn’t more than a few minutes before the shelves in the store were empty.
Twin Falls isn’t much of a shopping mall town. That facility is beautiful but undergoing changes as shopping habits have changed over the last generation. The big box stores clearly have variety and volume but I’m not a parking lot guy.
I like downtown. You can usually locate a spot near where you’re going. Parking won’t be available on the 9th but the customer base will be massive.