Ahwatukee Festival Of Lights Kickoff Party

Such a beautiful day in Arizona we came to the Festival of Lights! You have to park behind it and walk a bit to get there, 20$ get you an all day pass for kids for the bounce houses. There's two sides of vendors with food and cute things to buy, I do wish that they had signs saying their form of payment because everyone had different forms and you don't find out until you are buying something and the lines are long sometimes and the sun was super bright today. Make sure you put on sunscreen and wear sunglasses. FOOD: there was pita jungle, dumplings, hot dogs, dominos pizza (cash only), pop corn, cotton candy, ice cream and cakes.DRINKS: coffee Goat, a few stands of lemonade and sodas and on the center of the park there was a couple of breweries you have to pay to enter that part.Big stage with entertainment, kids dancing, bands sponsored by BIG O TIRES AHWATUKEE! They also had a Santa stand starting at noon where you can take pictures with him and tell h what you want for Christmas. The line was long all day.

A little disappointed in this year's event. Despite still being free to get in, the booth rental prices were $400 which led to $9.00 hot dogs $15 funnel cakes and $8.00 cokes. Not to mention that there were nowhere near the amount of places to eat as advertised. I'm assuming the space rental price kept many people away as the marketplace had only two thirds of the vendors as in past years. All in all, a very expensive day for a family outing that didn't live up to the events, concessions and fun as in past years.

Great event!! I don't know who or how they pull this event off but they nailed it this year. Great entertainment the whole day, amazing selection of food trucks and more jumpy houses than you can imagine. They handled the crowds well and the volunteers were great. I may have a new favorite guilty pleasure from a certain waffle truck. Hope I can find them again!

The Festival of Lights is a nonprofit organization in Ahwatukee that puts on an annual kickoff party to start the holiday season off right! This year was the second year I'd attended the festival with my family. We had a blast! The entertainment was coordinated by Kimberly Lewis. We always enjoy watching the children's performances. This year Studio 111 actually had their ballerinas in costume for their teaser of The Nutcracker. It was awesome!The only thing that could really make this better is if the seating area for the performances was tented. There was so much sun this year and it made it difficult to sit for a long time. I ended up with a sunburn, even with sunblock - ouch!Also, I'd love to see more food options at the festival.The bounce houses were great. Tickets were only 50 cents or you could buy an all-day wristband for $20. Most of the bounce houses took 4 or 5 tickets, so you should make your choice based on how long you plan to stay at the festival.There were a lot of vendors this year that I wanted to patronize. There was even a station offering free chair massages! This is one of my favorite local events! Please note: The Festival of Lights is currently asking for volunteers for light removal on Saturday, January 5. 2013 and again on January 14 if they do not finish the first day. They have to remove a million lights!

This is a lovely yearly holiday decoration along Chandler Blvd. from Desert Foothills Pkwy to 24th St., a distance of at least a mile. The saguaros and palo verdes which form the tallest plants in the gorgeous median in Desert Foothills are strung with clear lights from about Thanksgiving until the year's end. They look like fairy lights in the clear, crisp night air. And on a full-moon night, extra beautiful! I live here, and we pay Desert Foothills Association a yearly HOA assessment, so I assume that this is one of things we pay for. The landscaping here is gorgeous any time of the year, but especially spring and during the Festival of Lights. It's a joy to drive home along the road or take a winter walk and look up close at it.