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Holiday light display returns to Springfield's Forest Park

A scene from the Bright Nights at Forest Park light display
Spirit of Springfield
One of the illuminated displays that makes up Bright Nights at Forest Park

Bright Nights was held in 2020, but with restrictions

The largest holiday light display in New England returns this week to Springfield’s largest public park.

Bright Nights at Forest Park is a 3-mile-long show of holiday scenes, storybook characters, and local landmarks illustrated with more than 670,000 LED lights.

This is the 27th consecutive year Bright Nights has been held. The show went on last year with some restrictions due to the pandemic. This year, all the usual amenities are back.

WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill spoke with Judy Matt, President of Spirit of Springfield, the organization that produces Bright Nights along with the city of Springfield’s parks department.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.