Niagara Falls 2020 Winter Festival of Lights

Sunday, November 15, 2020

Niagara Falls 2020 Winter Festival of Lights

The lights are back along the mighty Niagara River as part of Canada's largest illumination festival which are viewed by almost 2 million people every year. Put on by Ontario Power Generation and running from Saturday, November 14, 2020 to Sunday, January 10, 2021 along the Niagara Parkway. The time is 5pm till 11:59pm. The weather on the opening night will be mostly sunny and a high of 8 degrees C, hopefully the night stays above freezing and that social distancing and masks will be a priority to visitors.

From the WFOL website, "Started in 1982, the current festival features over three million lights along an 8km illumination route that travels along the Niagara Parkway through the Niagara Parks Queen Victoria Park, into Dufferin Islands and into the surrounding tourist districts. Over the years, the Festival has earned countless travel and tourism industry awards including Event of the Year, Top Festival/Event in Ontario, Best Volunteer Program, Most Innovative Partnership and the prestigious Events of Distinction Award from Festivals and Events Ontario (FEO). In addition the American Bus Association (ABA) has long recognized the OPG Winter Festival of Lights as one of its Top 100 Internationally Known Events (2005 – 2015)."

We went to the falls on opening night and the weather was perfect for this time of year. The day was sunny and had a high of around 10 degrees C, the night continued relatively warm which was great for spending time wandering around the pathways of lights. Nearing the falls by the floodlights which light up the Canadian and American waterfalls, the usual light mist turned into a solid downpour that soaked us within minutes and stopped most visitors from progressing on foot towards Dufferin Island unless they took cars.