BOOTHBAY HARBOR, Maine — A highlight of the holiday season for Mainers and visitors from away, the annual Gardens Aglow light extravaganza opens Thursday at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay.
This year – the exhibit’s fifth – staff and volunteers have spent months hanging 650,000 LED lights throughout the gardens.
Organizers expect as many as 115,000 visitors over the next six weeks.
Among the displays this year are a variety of fairy houses, working model trains and three moose, including one fondly referred to as ‘Wade,’ standing chest-deep in a pond.
The exhibit also incorporates the botanical gardens' sculpture, Unearthed, created by Steve Tobin.
CEO Erin MacGregor-Forbes of the botanical gardens said her favorite display this year is the “fire terrace” or “Supernova” exhibit.
“It’s the upper part of the Children’s Garden and it’s all lit in reds and oranges and there are color splashes that look like fire coming from the sky," she said Wednesday night.
Gardens Aglow has been so popular in recent years that organizers have capped attendance each night, and the gates will close when the night is sold out.
"The lights, and the excitement and the huge crowds are just so fun," MacGregor-Forbes said. "It’s an exciting thing for families to do. It gets everybody revved up. It’s amazing to see people just come and relax and enjoy being outside in the wintertime in all this color. And I guarantee the joy and fun people have it’s infectious. When they come back through the visitors center and head home, they’re just beaming and that’s the most rewarding piece of this.
Gardens Aglow runs Thursdays through Sundays until Dec. 19, and then daily through Dec. 31. The exhibit is closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.
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