Downtown Fort Collins Turns On 65,000+ Holiday Lights

Guerrilla Fanfare Brass Band takes the Old Town Square stage at 5:30 PM, when November dark has already closed in and the brick paths off College and Linden fill with families under the storefront lights. At 6:30 PM city leaders lead a short countdown and more than 65,000 bulbs switch on across more than 334 downtown trees, glowing every evening through Feb. 14, 2027. Walk the lit blocks, then head about three minutes south to Oak Street Plaza, where The Gardens on Spring Creek has a special light installation built just for downtown this year, with room to photograph it and word on the garden's upcoming Garden of Lights event.

Harper Goff grew up in Fort Collins, and when he was designing Disneyland's Main Street, U.S.A. he had photographs of his hometown taken and showed them to Walt Disney, who liked them enough to copy the City Hall and the bank. The 1882 city hall and firehouse on Walnut Street is one of those buildings recreated there in miniature, and it now holds Old Firehouse Books and Happy Lucky's Tea House.

Admission is free, and street closures start at 3:30 PM on Walnut Street, the 200 block of Linden Street, Mountain Avenue from College to Remington, and Remington Street from Mountain to Oak. The Old Town Garage at 209 East Mountain Avenue takes cars only from westbound Mountain Avenue that night, because its Remington Street entrance is closed for construction; the Civic Center on North Mason Street and Firehouse Alley off Chestnut Street are the other two. Parking fills early and traffic backs up before and after, so MAX, carpooling or the extra bike racks on Walnut Street save the hunt. November nights drop near freezing: wool layers, gloves.