Hugo Court Christmas Lights Narre Warren shut down

[Kitman]

So I was having a look on news.com.au as I do, and I spotted an article talking about Christmas lights, and well with having the CLAP and all I thought I should check it out.

Seems that a Christmas light display has been cancelled for the foreseeable future as they have gotten a bit too big for the local council and residents, the council has claimed the light display is now an "event" and as such, they require insurance and traffic management etc in order to continue.

I don't believe any of the homes were computer controlled mainly static displays, however just goes to show getting too big can be harmful to your CLAP as some of the members here have found out the hard way.

The article is here---> https://www.news.com.au/national/vi...t/news-story/806cd3c1401652f6b707805aa12b7cb4 for anyone to look at.

 

[djgra79]

This display is only 15mins drive form my place and we took a look last year.
It is a court full of static (store bought) lights, no computer control at all. They've gone for quantity over quality I guess you could say, but it is very impressive the amount of lights and fake snow and blow molds etc on display.
Also impressive is the sheer volume of people looking at it. Roads get blocked due to too many pedestrian traffic, there are ice cream and coffee van vendors to cater for the masses. The parking is practically non-existent, the nearby school is only public place to park, otherwise its quite a walk through the car traffic and foot traffic to get there and back.
From that perspective I can understand that the council calls it an event, as someone could very easily get hurt. The crowds seemed generally well behaved but I guess it only takes 1 or 2 idiots to ruin it for everyone too.
I guess its just one of those cases of shows getting too big, and is a timely reminder for us all who do this that we set ourselves some expectations of the size/scale and reach of our shows.

 

[Romerio]

Council's should embrace it.

http://www.campbelltown.sa.gov.au/lights - One SA Council runs their own lights competition and runs buses for viewing.

http://www.cmd.act.gov.au/open_gove...ambah-and-bonner-for-christmas-light-displays - Canberra changing road conditions to suit traffic during lights displays.

Just saying "It's an Event, Pay Insurance and Traffic Management" is unacceptable.

 

[Kitman]

I would imagine that the Ice cream and Coffee van vendors have just seen an opportunity to capitalize on the large crowds and moved in which no doubt made it even larger. Perhaps now the crowds will need somewhere else to go and will rock up on your door Graham.

It will always be a balancing act and between council, neighbours, and visitors, there are always a few who will ruin it but the majority are well behaved and respectful.

 

[OzAz]

if you want to see a suburb that embraces Christmas lights, look no further than Lobethal SA http://www.lightsoflobethal.com.au/

Agree with @djgra79. We "should be careful what we wish for" when it comes to number of visitors. I advertised on one of the 'Christmas Lights in your area' sites half way through the season last year and saw a huge jump in traffic. Won't be advertising on there this year, will just put a post or 2 on my facebook page. Hopefully that will keep number of visitors down a bit, would hate to turn into an "event"!

 

[djgra79]

Perhaps now the crowds will need somewhere else to go and will rock up on your door Graham.

Not that size, no way. If it gets too big here then I will make efforts to downsize!

this isn't the first time I've seen this within our council either. I remember 20 years ago similar sized street in Berwick was crazy busy with foot and car traffic every night. They did have traffic control but one year it all just shut down, never to be seen again.

 

[Ellis]

I've got no idea how much traffic I will have this year but hopefully get no compliants or issues.
There is a Street/neighbourhood at the northern end of the Gold Coast that gets the road closed by council for foot traffic due to how busy it is.


View: https://www.facebook.com/9NewsGoldCoast/videos/10154057331606723/

 

[Kitman]

if you want to see a suburb that embraces Christmas lights, look no further than Lobethal SA http://www.lightsoflobethal.com.au/

I will admit I haven't been to Lobethal in many years, however even though the township embraces the lights it is nothing spectacular, yes almost every house has some "lights" up, however, some are a very poor excuse for lights and some are not too bad, traffic is totally mental with multiple busses that go through the town and so many cars and people on foot you can't get anywhere near the place, when you arrive in the town you have to follow the preset driving route to be able to see everything and to keep traffic flowing.

 

[Derf]

Agree with @djgra79. We "should be careful what we wish for" when it comes to number of visitors. I advertised on one of the 'Christmas Lights in your area' sites half way through the season last year and saw a huge jump in traffic.

I know that I will get the "Don't wish for it" response. but....

I Put my address on multiple Christmas Light directories and advertised on radio, noticeboards and facebook and got 3-6 people in total up my street in the month of December. (hopefully it changes this year. I would like a moderate amount of viewers to come and see the show. Traffic isn't really a major issue as I live in a culdesac and all my neighbours loved last years show and know the risks of it becoming a large "event".)

The problem is where you live and what your suburb is like. It is very risky to do this hobby on a main road. My suburb has a couple of houses on the main road and during the show season the whole road is gridlocked with every food truck and espresso van in Sydney occupying the shoulder lanes. It isn't to much of a problem as most of the traffic is on foot with families being the main spectators. What we tend to have issues with is younger youths trying to take their loud cars around and to become the centre of attention. This is where it normally gets dangerous. People wear dark clothing and drivers cannot reliably see pedestrians and due to the shear amount of people most spectators walk in the middle of the road to see everyone's display.

Luckily we haven't had our council knock them down but instead give them the award for best lit house in the suburb. There really isn't a way to mitigate the issue people just have to deal with it for the month of December and try to use some road sense to make every other person safe.