Making spirits bright
Holiday smash-hit Radiance returns to Dallas-Fort Worth with fun new Halloween and Christmas events
It's beginning to look like a hot, steamy second half of July — a perfect time to talk fall and winter holidays. The folks behind last year's smash-hitRadiance! Holiday Light Spectacular are back for 2021 and flipping the switch on dazzling new events for both Halloween and Christmas.
First will be a brand-new, family-friendly Halloween event, Frights’n Lights Frisco, "where ghouls glow, spirits shine, and things go 'bump' in the light!" Peerless Production Group says in a July 13 release. "Bridging the gap between basic pumpkin patches and the gore of traditional haunted houses, Frights’n Lights is an Instagram wonderland chock full of ‘phantasmic’ photo opportunities and features the largest and safest trick-or-treat trail in Texas."
They promise a land filled with thousands of shining, intricately carved jack-o-lanterns and a thrilling cast of spine-chilling Hollywood stars brought to life by a ghoulish gallery of giant-sized lanterns and lights. There'll also be haunted games, the Headless Horseman’s Haunted Hay Maze, rides, Halloween-themed concessions, and a retro drive-in movie on a 40-foot screen, they say.
The event will take place at Riders Field (formerly Dr Pepper Ballpark) in Frisco, on select dates from September 30-November 6. Tickets will go on sale in September; prices have not been disclosed.
Then will come Radiance! featuring Frozen in Frisco, "a magnificent winter carnival sure to fill every member of your family with the spirit of the season," they promise.
Running November 18-January 6 at Frisco's Riders Field, it's a two-part experience covered by one ticket. Radiance!, held as a drive-thru event last year, becomes a theme park-style ride in a vehicle that guides guests through the show. "This means less wait time and more fun for you and your family this holiday season," the organizers say, addressing one of the biggest (and only?) complaints about the 2020 edition.
Visitors can expect an all-new, mile-long light trail of over 3 million RGB lights, animated to favorite holiday tunes, leading into the inaugural Frozen in Frisco winter-themed festival.
The event will feature a two-story outdoor ice tubing hill, ice skating under the stars, bumper cars on ice, snowball toss with real snow, a 108-foot Ferris wheel, Christmas carousel, buckin’ reindeer rides, a Christmas Story escape room, s’mores fire pits, a holiday market, and more.
“Radiance! was immensely successful last year thanks to our wonderful guests, and we were just getting started," says Jill Lank, CEO of PPG, in the release. "We are thrilled to be back in Frisco with an even bigger and better experience for everyone to come out and enjoy all the holidays have to offer."
But wait, there's more — Frisco doesn't get all the fun. That wouldn't be fair.
Radiance! A Holiday Light Spectacular is also returning to both Weatherford and Decatur for 2021, with an enhanced mile-long drive-thru holiday experience. They're adding more scenes, a million more dazzling animated lights, and VIP experiences that include exclusive light tunnel photo opportunities and faster access.
Radiance! At the Ranch in Weatherford (Parker County Sheriff's Posse, 2251 Mineral Wells Hwy.) will run November 18-December 31, while Radiance! Decatur (Reunion Grounds Joe Wheeler Park, 2901 FM 51 #100) will run November 18-December 26.
And ...
A fourth location — aptly named Radiance! at the Races — will launch this November at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis (7500 US-287) and give guests the chance to drive along "a dragster track arched with animated tunnels, racing-themed holiday scenes, and dancing lights galore." It will run November 18-January 1.
Tickets to all Radiance! events will go on sale soon; prices have not been disclosed. For more details, visit FrightsnLights.com and RadianceChristmas.com.