Cochranites can spend an evening downtown at the town’s biggest and brightest event, with the return of the annual Cochrane Light Up event this Saturday.
At around noon on Nov. 25, roads in Historic Downtown Cochrane will be closed in preparation of the event which will run from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
President of the Cochrane Light Up Society and board of directors’ member for the Rocky Mountain Rotary Club, Chris Heier, said anybody is welcome to join the staple annual event.
“Everybody and anybody are welcome to hang out downtown,” Heier said. “There’s no cost to anybody showing up and a lot of our sponsors will either have free hotdogs or hot chocolate available.”
In an effort to reduce the amount of waste generated at this year’s event, Heier said that this year’s Light Up will run a bring your own cup (or mug) event, where attendees can get their fill of hot chocolate by bringing an appropriate beverage container.
Reuseable cups will also be available for purchase at a few locations on First Street and the surrounding area for $5.
Heier assures that alongside the hotdogs that will be handed out at the event, there will also be enough hot chocolate to go around for everyone.
“I’m hoping that if we do run out, I’d actually be kind of proud of it in a way,” Heier said. “We are going to be brewing 5000 litres of hot chocolate and make it available on site with a water truck, to make it really easy to refill containers that are required to be pouring them from.
“So, the hope is that we keep them full all the time until the water truck itself goes empty.”
Local groups and organizations on site will also provide some entertainment with the Cochrane Activettes bringing out Santa Claus, Christmas carols performed by Cochrane Sings, and flash mobs throughout the evening by dancers from Snap Dance Studio.
“But to kind of top things up at night, we’re going to have really nice coordinated lighting and pyrotechnics show that’ll happen at 7:30 p.m.,” Heier said.
With the event just a few days away, Heier said that although this is their first time managing the event, he is excited and looks forward to this year’s Light Up.
“I think we’re doing some neat stuff this year, that I think will allow us to carry on a few things into next year,” Heier said. “But I think largely, there’s a handful of things we’re trying to hold on to the spirit of, given that there’s a lot of us who have gone to Cochrane Light Up in previous years.
“We understand the spirit and we want to do everything to personify that.”
Heier said he would like to extend a special mention to Claire Breeze of Kitchen Boutique for the idea of reuseable cups at this year’s event. He also gives a special thank you to Fiona Sharman of Global Pet Foods for purchasing and donating all the reusable cups that will be at this year’s event.
Heier would also like to mention that First Light Automation, Winducks, and Our Electrician have also provided a significant amount of support for the installation of lights that will be used for Cochrane Light Up, and will run through to the new year.
