Rotary Lights preparing for 30th year of lighting up La Crosse riverfront at the holidays

A La Crosse holiday season tradition reaches the 30-year mark in 2024.

Organizers with Rotary Lights have announced their plans for the display in Riverside Park which will be switched on the night of November 29th.

Volunteers will begin putting lights throughout the park soon. Rotary Lights president Pat Stephens says the display has withstood bad weather all these years, including a windstorm during a recent warm December.

“We go through and take through the park about 130-thousand people” during a holiday season, Stephens tells reporters. “It’s bumper to bumper most nights, especially on weekends.”

The yearly food collection drive began in 1995, and food donations are distributed to more than a dozen area community pantries.

A new Teddy Bear representing Rotary Lights is available for purchase this year. The 2024 bear is a stuffed panda named Puddin.

Last year, more than 3 million lights were placed in the park. This year, they’ll have the shortest possible schedule, 33 nights of lights between the day after Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve.