Judges covered over 40 miles on Sunday taking in the lighting displays and counting the stars visible along the official driving route for the Festival of Lights. Over 280 stars are on display during The Valley's Festival of Lights.
"It's entertaining to see how businesses and residents are incorporating stars into their traditional decor, creating a unique display or allowing the stars to stand alone or in clusters," says Lisa Davis of the Mad River Valley Chamber of Commerce. "There are single wooden stars with white lights, stars with colored lights, six-point stars and one creative Santa scene on the north end of Old County Road."
This year marks the 10th annual Festival of Lights sponsored by Sugarbush Resort and the Mad River Valley Chamber of Commerce. The theme "Les Etoiles de Noel" is the marrying of two ideas – a tribute to the 50th anniversary of Chez Henri Bistro combined with the merchants on Bridge Street wanting to expand on the success of last year's stars in order to, in Barbra Gulisano's words, "Light up this town!"
Gulisano, co-owner of the blue building on Bridge Street, spread the word to get folks involved. Bridget LaMell, owner and designer at Reign Vermont, offered up space in front of her cottage for the community construction days that took place in November and Corin Bauer, owner of Balanced Life Chiropractor, the originator of the wooden stars on the Fuller House building, provided hands-on instruction for building the stars. Volunteers built stars for the town and themselves.
"There are no stipulations, as rumor would have it, on how many or how few stars to display or how to display them or what materials to use," Davis explains. Individual creativity is part of The Valley's character. The continuity of the theme represents that we are community."
As of Sunday evening, December 7, there were 273 stars visible along the official route. A Monday evening drive to Montpelier revealed seven more stars along 100B and three more popped up on Old County Road in Waitsfield bringing the total to 284. The route includes: Route 100 from Moretown/Duxbury town line south to Warren/Granville town line; Route 100B Moretown to Middlesex town line; Waitsfield's Bridge Street, East Warren Road (including Roxbury Gap- Roxbury/Warren town line) through Warren Village; from Mad River Glen, east along Route 17 to Route 100; German Flats Road; Sugarbush Access Road to Lincoln Peak including Sugarbush Village.
Festival of Lights winners will be announced on Thursday evening, December 18, at the holiday celebration at Sugarbush Resort. Thousands of dollars in prizes will be awarded in several categories factoring in theme, creativity and brilliance. Each winner will designate a local charity as a prize recipient. Even though the contest is over, the community is encouraged to continue decorating with stars for the holiday season.
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