Cathedral Festival of Lights returns with free outdoor Christmas light show, new immersive indoor show & holiday market
Light and music celebrate the story of Christmas on a massive scale Wednesday Dec. 15 though Sunday Dec. 19, 2021 Cathedral of Saint Paul (Saint Paul, Minn.) The Cathedral Heritage Foundation brings back the Cathedral Festival of Lights event with a major expansion. The CHF presents both an indoor and outdoor Christmas light shows Starry Night and The Beginning, along with an out-door Christmas market, at the Cathedral of Saint Paul, 239 Selby Ave., Saint Paul.
The light shows run Wednesday, Dec. 15 through Sunday. Dec. 19; the Christmas Market is slated for Dec. 16-18. Tickets for the indoor event, Starry Night, may be purchased now at eventbrite.com. The outdoor show is free and presented by the Cathedral Heritage Foun-dation and sponsors as a gift to the community. Starry Night, produced by the award-winning Luxmuralis from the United Kingdom, will transform the Cathedral’s interior into a fully immersive 360-degree light and sound experience. Guests will be allowed to find their own seats and perspective, as the show sur-rounds them in dynamic, moving images accompanied by a custom musical score. Guests are welcome to view the full projection multiple times before exiting the Cathedral. Outside, the cinematic projection of The Beginning uses the Cathedral’s 150-foot-tall east-ern façade as the backdrop to tell the Christmas Story of wonderment and joy. The 12-minute show will be run on a continual loop during each night’s operating hours. (See below for details.) The light shows represent only the second North American offering by Luxmuralis.
The Cathedral Heritage Foundation’s 2020 inaugural offering, The Manger, drew thousands of people in cars for the drive-in viewing (due to COVID restrictions), along with more than 50,000 viewers from around the globe who watched via Facebook livestreams or recordings. This year, the outdoor event is open to pedestrians, with an additional drive-in movie setting on Sunday, the final day of the event, with registration available by invitation only for those more comfortable viewing from inside their vehicle. The street in front of the Cathedral can fit approximately 80 vehicles per viewing, with shows running every 20 minutes.
“We are so pleased, thanks to the generosity of our community sponsors, to present both indoor and outdoor light shows by Luxmura-lis, and to showcase the grand architecture of the Cathedral of Saint Paul,” said Mary E. Schaffner, CHF board chair. “We are especially delighted to present Starry Night inside the Cathedral, where visitors will be enveloped in music and wonderous images within the Cathedral’s beaux-arts interior.”
