Holiday Fest to bring fireworks, festivities

Shakopee Valley News

Shakopee is gearing up for the holidays.

After the success of Rhythm on the Rails, the Chamber of Commerce is trying to expand Holiday Fest, the annual holiday celebration in downtown Shakopee, Main Street Program Director Elliot Johnson said.

“With what we did this summer, we wanted the community traditions to continue growing,” Johnson said. “We took what we did last year with Holiday Fest and expanded it by double, honestly it feels like.”

Holiday Fest will kick off on Dec. 1 with a parade of lights at 6 p.m. and the traditional tree-lighting ceremony immediately after. That night will have a variety of activities including an interactive ice sculpture, cookie decorating, face painting and more throughout downtown. The first night will end with the fireworks show.

“Instead of competing with all the other communities that did fireworks over the Fourth of July time frame, we knew the concert series kind of covered summer activity so we thought, to be creative and different in the metropolitan area to do our fireworks and our parade for the holiday season,” Johnson said.

The activities will continue Dec. 2 with a petting zoo from 10 a.m. to noon and photos with Santa.

“A lot of people will get together in their communities to light the tree but we want to do more,” Johnson said. “We want to do the parade and the fireworks to really make it something special this year.”

The event will be completely funded by local businesses, including Cub Foods, Park Nicollet Clinic, O’Brien’s Public House, Turtle’s, St. Francis, Shutterfly, Menden Acccounting and more.

“These kinds of things aren’t cheap and they aren’t free so it really relies on the businesses to make it happen,” Johnson said. “That’s kind of what my speech or my messaging became at the concert series like, ‘We’re glad you’re having fun but please thank the business community, because they’re the reason this is happening today.’ Shop local, support local and go get your flu shot at the clinic.”

Floats in the parade of lights will compete for awards, including Best Use of Lights, Best Use of Music and then Best of Show, decided on by Shakopee Mayor Bill Mars.

Holiday Fest will hopefully bring lots of people downtown, Johnson said.

“The reason we put this on year after year ... is we want people to recognize and appreciate all the small businesses we have here and make sure that you’re shopping local this holiday season,” Johnson said.

Holiday Fest is a nostalgic event for residents, Johnson said.

“We really try to make sure this is one of those all-inclusive events where no matter your age, your religion, your background, Holiday Fest to us is nostalgic for the community in the sense that it’s a time of coming together,” Johnson said. “It’s really welcoming everyone and we hope everyone feels that welcome and we hope everyone joins us.”

The family-friendly event is also free.

“It’s an opportunity to start creating memories, which is something I’ve always wanted to do here with this job,” Johnson said. “We want to make sure families go back and relatives and visitors who are coming up to see the holiday season and say, ‘I wish our community did something like this.’ It’s going to be an event to remember.”