Greetings from Lobethal, South Australia

112 Lights

112 Lights

New elf
Generous elf
Joined
Nov 10, 2025
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Hi All,
Adam from Lobethal in the Adelaide Hills here. Our village's Christmas Light Festival started off in 1936 when some Main Street shop owners painted light bulbs up as a display for the state's centenary celebrations - this then went on to the 'Lights of Lobethal' being a growing phenomenon year on year at Christmas time. I used to have a pretty good display on my home prior to the 2019 Bushfires when my home was destroyed. We have just moved back in to the village and found this site in my research on what to do for our new home. I'm looking forward to learning a lot on here and helping out where I can. My aim is to set up something basic for this year and go full-on for Christmas 2026!
 
HI Adam,
An welcome to ACL.
I have visted the Lights of Lobethal, and killed my legs doing the walk. (love it when the town gets involved)
How Big do you wish to go?
As there is some SmartAlec that has a big show in Murray Bridge, (he also offers a walk through for ACL only people)
 
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Welcome Adam, I remember going to Lobethal lights when I was a young lad, and also when I was older I went with my sister who lived at Balhannah. Sad to hear you lost your house in the fires. How's the village going these days with the lights?
 
SmartAlecLights said:
HI Adam,
An welcome to ACL.
I have visted the Lights of Lobethal, and killed my legs doing the walk. (love it when the town gets involved)
How Big do you wish to go?
As there is some SmartAlec that has a big show in Murray Bridge, (he also offers a walk through for ACL only people)
Click to expand...
Thanks for the welcome! Yes, Lights of Lobethal is a bit of a leg work-out for visitors, unless you want to drive a car around in the grid-lock! I grew up in Lobethal so I've lived the dream for quite a bit of my life. I'm also on the organising committee so I understand the heavy logistic burden of running an event like this - and always looking for ideas to make it better.

The village has struggled off and on with the Lights since the fires (84 homes lost in a population of only 2000 people). I think cost of living, people's tolerance of the visitor load (after the fires) and general life pressures of volunteering has made it difficult. That said, plenty of people still decorate their homes and businesses and there are some amazing displays, just none that are programmed and automated. I think this could be a huge uplift if we could get it going!

Getting involved here on this site is part of that as I have a number of young people in the community that I want to get engaged in display building for a number of reasons:
1. Education - teaching young ones to get involved with something like programmable/animated lighting displays gets them interested in practical things.
2. Community - start them off with involvement in community volunteering and projects
3. Networking - help them form friendship groups with their peers and adults.

My plan is to get my place up and running with a decent display for next year to show them what is possible (and to motivate other adults!). Then engage the local schools to have a "Christmas Light Club" - something that we might be able to also involve the local men's shed with.

In short, I want to go fairly big with my place next year and some drives around to other member's locations this Christmas will be a part of the planning for that. My son is 11 years old and he's keen!!!

I'm a complete newbie at this level of light decoration but a quick learner on all things practical.
 
OzAz said:
Welcome Adam, I remember going to Lobethal lights when I was a young lad, and also when I was older I went with my sister who lived at Balhannah. Sad to hear you lost your house in the fires. How's the village going these days with the lights?
Click to expand...
Thanks for the Welcome! I tried to answer both replies in the one above.
 
Welcome, mate. We've been going to Lobethal ever since we move to Adelaide in 2019. I got the bug and started with a few Bunnings bits, then got really into this hobby a year later after watching some Dr ZZZs videos on YouTube. The first thought I had after that was surprise that someone in Lobethal hasn't done a music light show yet, so I'm glad to see someone getting into the idea.

After tinkering with random ESP boards, I found it much easier to use a dedicated controller. I bought a couple of Dig-Quads as I'm a fan of using WLED. I recently bought a DMX24 from Hansons as I wanted to add some fairy lights in the mix. And next year I'll likely buy pixel controller from Hansons as well to expand my props.

I think anyone in this will give you the same advice of start small and, if you want to, add a bit each year. Don't go all in straight away.

Be sure to share your display on the map so I know a fellow ACL member when I'm walking round this year.
 
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