Cochrane Light Up set for one month before Christmas

A date has been set and both hot dogs and hot chocolate will be on the menu at this year's Light Up. 

The annual event that kicks off the Christmas season in our community will go exactly one month before Christmas according to Chris Heier, chair of the organizing committee.

"We are going to be putting on Light Up on November 25th, and we have a solid group of people helping to organize the event. So it's just a matter of getting a few final details sorted out now."  

The Rocky Mountain Rotary Club is organizing the event for the first time this year. 

Heier said there likely won't be any major changes this year, they just want to make sure the event runs smoothly and that all of the fan favourites appear.

"Logistics around a few of those things are to be figured out. But hot dogs, absolutely, we've seen that both hot dogs and hot chocolate are staples of the event for many, many years, I mean, it's been going on for over 30 years." 

Although details aren't completely finalized, Heier said they're looking at bringing in the hot chocolate in a different manner this year. 

"We would use the equipment at Half Hitch Brewing Company to effectively brew the hot chocolate in bulk, where we could potentially have up to 5000 litres of hot, hot chocolate delivered on site."   

They're encouraging event goers to bring their own to-go mugs to try to reduce the amount of garbage created.

"We want to ty to avoid providing cups. That largely becomes the bulk of the garbage when you have 10,000 plus cups getting thrown away all over the place or just left on the road, and that's a huge concern for the Eco department with the town of Cochrane."    

Plans are underway for a full pyrotechnics show with animated lighting in tandem with music at the end of the evening.

There will also be street entertainment throughout the event.

Upwards of 15,000 people gather in Historic Downtown Cochrane for the outdoor street festival, that officially kicks off the Christmas season in our community each year.

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