Famed Riverside Lights Festival Begins Friday

The Inland Empire’s signature holiday event -- the “Festival of Lights” -- will get underway Friday in Riverside with a ceremony that will turn the Mission Inn Hotel & Spa into a brilliantly illuminated kingdom of Christmas-oriented entertainment.

The 23nd annual festival officially begins at 4:45 p.m. outside the Mission Inn. Owner and festival founder Duane Roberts, joined by the mayor and members of the Riverside City Council, will throw the switch on more than four million Christmas lights, followed by a fireworks extravaganza and Christmas music.

Crews began working round-the-clock shifts in early September, readying the hotel for the roughly five-week celebration that will conclude just before daybreak on Jan. 2.

The festival began in 1992, after Roberts and his wife, Kelly, took over the Mission Inn.

Each fest opens with a pyrotechnics spectacular that illuminates the entire Main Street plaza. Afterward, the century-old inn is bathed in multi- colored hues, with some 400 animated characters, including elves, toy soldiers, nutcrackers and angels, visible on banisters, balconies and ledges.

Towering Christmas trees line the way outside and into the hotel, where visitors also encounter “the world’s largest manmade mistletoe,” measuring 12- by-8 feet, according to festival organizers.

Nightly horse-drawn carriage rides are planned, along with performances by the celebrated Dickens carolers, ice-skating, a snow hill and visits from Santa and Mrs. Claus on the Main Street pedestrian mall fronting the castle- like inn.

The city complements the festival with light displays along Mission Inn and University avenues.

Last year’s event drew more than 250,000 visitors, organizers said.

— City News Service.