Festival of Lights

NEWBERRY – A festival is coming to town, and Santa and Mrs. Claus will be the guests of honor.

The Seventh Annual Newberry Festival of Lights will be on Saturday, Dec. 14, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The festival itself will run from 2 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Children will have the opportunity to bring their parents to downtown Newberry to meet Santa at the William Barry, Jr. City Park.

Bouncy houses will be among the featured attractions for children this year. Craft vendors selling a wide assortment of handmade gift items will be on hand for visitors who want to get some holiday shopping out of the way.

Wooden furniture, jewelry and jams will be for sale, in addition to snacks and meals.

Gainesville band Late Night Delivery will be on hand to provide musical entertainment.

At 4 p.m., Sidney Lanier Center’s Drum Kit and Percussion Ensemble, directed by Dr. Don DeVito, will perform. The special-needs musical group is fresh from a performance in Carnegie Hall and routinely uses Skype to learn and perform music with people from other parts of the world.

Seasonal music, carnival foods and unique holiday gifts and crafts are all part of the festival experience, produced each year by the Newberry Main Street Organization. The event, which is co-sponsored by the City of Newberry, Visit Gainesville, the Newberry Tourism Center, Newberry’s Backyard Bar-B-Q and the Firehouse Gallery, attracts arts and crafts vendors from Florida and Georgia and visitors from the surrounding cities to Newberry.

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