JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — "This is the calm before the storm," Rachael Green said Wednesday as she worked inside the The Spice and Tea Exchange of St. Augustine.
"It’s been slow during the week. Busier on the weekends," she noted.
She, other merchants, and city crews are preparing for the three million lights to turn on and sparkle all over downtown St. Augustine. Light Up Night is this Saturday. The annual light display is in its 30th year. It was initially created to boost business.
"We went to Gatlinburg," Len Weeks recalled. The contractor and former mayor remembers when the Nights of Lights was just an idea. He said he along with other city leaders in 1994 hatched the Nights of Lights concept after seeing the light displays near Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
"Before the Nights of Lights, we had a town that rolled up the streets at five o’clock in the afternoon. We wanted to promote nighttime activities," Weeks said.
So he and a few others convinced businesses and government leaders to invest in $250,000 worth of lights.
There were critics, he said.
"There were people in this town who did not want to do this for several reasons. One, they didn't want to bring more tourists to town. Well, that's what we want. We're a visitors town. We just need to bring them in in an organized fashion, which we're doing now."
"Secondly, they didn't want to cheapen St. Augustine by having all these bright colored animated lights," Weeks said. "So I made a commitment in the beginning when I had to go to all these groups and try to sell this plan that it would not be colored lights. It would be white string lights that outline the architecture of our city."
And when the Nights of Lights started, the goal wasn’t just to bring in people to the city and boost business.
Weeks said, "It was a safety issue because back before the Nights of Lights, St. Augustine was darkest in those months between Thanksgiving and the end of January. So the lights actually bring light to the downtown and make it so that people fell safer."
Thirty Nights of Lights later, does it really drumming up more business for merchants?
Green said, "It does. It does. Absolutely during the months of December when kids are out of school and people can travel."
Weeks said, "It’s been a huge economic boost to our business community."