Light Up Night // Downtown Irwin, PA // 2016

Light Up Night in Downtown Irwin – I can remember coming to this parade since I was a little girl. My family never regularly participated in any Halloween or Christmas parades, but we always went to Light Up Night. We would sit on the sidewalk and jump up & down for parade-people to throw us candy (wait, who am I kidding? I would never been the kid jumping up & down! I was the shy kid who hung back and let everyone else go crazy, while I just quietly collected my candy)

This year, Downtown Irwin truly outdid itself. Everything was beautiful & festive, the crowd in a Christmas cheer. Let’s talk about that crowd for a moment: typically, it is estimated that about 10,000 people attend Light Up Night. This year though, that number had to be higher. The weather was so pleasant – temperatures in the low 50’s! If anyone was on the fence about coming, they all decided to come! The streets were packed, to say the least. People were parked crazily anywhere within a mile radius that they could find open space.

We’ve stood and watched the parade from many different locations every year (no, we’re not that family that has “their” spot along the parade route that they sit every single year, mostly because none of us are crazy enough to get there 3-4 hours early. No joke: in order to get a prime seat, you have to be downtown by 3pm when the parking ban goes into effect) but I have never remembered people lining the streets from the beginning of the parade route all the way until the very very end. We parked up the hill at my Dad’s shop, so we walked the parade route to leave and I was shocked at how far down the road – right to the very end – that people were sitting!

There simply wasn’t enough room in Downtown Irwin for Light Up Night this year!
How exciting!
I love seeing this little community come together for these amazing events like this – it’s what sets this lovely little place apart from so many other little towns!

I posted 80 of my favorite images from the evening on my Facebook page, inviting everyone to share, tag themselves and friends, and download any images they wanted! No strings attached! Just my way of giving back to this fabulous community! Here’s the link if you are interested in looking thru all of the images!

The countdown & lighting the tree!

Here comes the parade!

Braelynn loved every moment of the parade! She contentedly watched for the full 90 minutes!