Making the Magic Happen ~~ Behind-the-Scenes at the Holiday Festival of Lights
By Charlie Morrison
The holiday season is once again upon us. The shorter days, the blustery winds, and those manic shopping sprees have the power to dampen our holiday spirits. What sometimes gets lost in all of this is the idea that the holiday season is the time of the year we give thanks to the things that make our lives healthy, fruitful, and fulfilling. For residents of the Lowcountry, we have an extra reason to be thankful each and every year: James Island County Park's Holiday Festival of Lights.
The Charleston Parks and Recreation Commission (CCPRC) is doing a little bit of celebrating themselves this year. The 2009-2010 holiday season marks the 20th anniversary of the Holiday Festival of Lights, no small feat considering all of the turbulence the past two decades. The festival has survived recessions, hurricanes, and an-ever changing Charleston region, largely in part to the people behind the scenes. For an inside look into the strength and resilience of the event, JIM spoke to two of the Festival's key players: Director of Maintenance David Chappell and Holiday Festival of Lights Supervisor Rich Raab, both residents of James Island.
The Origins of the Festival
The Holiday Festival of Lights started modestly. Former CCPRC Director Tim Eubanks wanted to bring something new to the park. He and Chappell scanned the country for ideas, and what emerged was a trek to Wheeling, West Virginia and Oglebay Park. Oglebay had been putting on a wintertime event called the Winter Festival of Lights, which was a big hit in the small town about an hour southwest of Pittsburgh. CCPRC purchased 18 light displays from Oglebay Park, and the James Island County Park Festival of Lights was born.
Purchasing the light was just the beginning, and the growth of the festival that followed was exponential. Enter Rich Raab, Holiday Festival of Lights Supervisor. Raab saw the park's newest asset and said to Chappell, "I can build these." Seeing Raab's enthusiasm and knowing his artistic and metal-working abilities, Chappell responded with a challenge, telling Raab if he thought he could fabricate the designs himself, he should go ahead and do it.
"Lets see if you can really do it. Build me a couple of snowflake designs over the summer, complete with lighting, and then we'll really know if its possible or not," he told Raab.
Over that next summer, Raab, working in his home-based shop, created a total of 80 snowflake displays. And the rest, as they say, is history. Rich Raab became the architect of the displays, and earned himself a full-time job as the Festival of Lights supervisor, a position he's held for all 20 years.
Chappell knew what he had at that point. The wheels began to spin in his mind about what the Holiday Festival of Lights could be, and growth of "the little light show" into the holiday extravaganza we all know and love began. Today, the Holiday Festival of Lights features more than 650 displays and over 100 individual pieces, all dreamed up, designed and created by Rich Raab, who David Chappell fondly calls "a true artist."
Santa's Workshop
Putting on the Festival of Lights is a year-round event. Raab's current work facility, which he fondly dubbed "Santa's Workshop," has undergone an evolution of its own. In the past, Raab and his crew used a basic technique of drawing a rough chalk outline of an image onto the concrete floor, and bended rebar into the shapes he needed. Today, the artist utilizes a scanner, a computer, and a projector to lay the template of an image on the concrete. Once Raab finds an image he likes, he scans it into the computer. The digital image makes any edits he sees fit to make much easier. The edited image is then sent to a projector that's mounted on the ceiling of the shop and pointed straight down to the floor design area. Alterations regarding the size of the image, and the display to be created, can be made with a click of the mouse.
With a projected image of the potential display piece illuminated on the floor of the workshop, the design team can begin the process of cutting, bending, shaping, and welding the rebar skeleton into the form they want. Raab is a bit of a perfectionist.
"Even when I get a drawing or image I like, I spend hours on the computer re-working the drawing. Then, even when it's on the floor, I sometimes decide the image isn't going to work, so I begin again," he said.
There is a practical reason to build and maintain the displays in-house, notes David Chappell. "The sun's UV rays fade the bulbs," he says. "The fading defeats the purpose of being clear, distinct, joyful, and wonderful. That's the battle. If the lights aren't clear the people wouldn't come back. It wouldn't be as festive".
With the metalworking done, Raab and his team begin the tedious process of adding the lights. These days, the design crew utilizes many types of lights in their displays. These include six different varieties of bulbs: mini-lights, icicle lights, rope lights, the typical big-bulb C-7 and C-9 lights, and the team's newest toy, LED lights.
The 'light infantry'
David Chappell says it's nice to have the talented Raab handling the production and maintenance of the individual displays, but that's only half the battle. The workforce behind the project is immense by necessity. Chappell's traditional duties are to maintain the CCPRC's ten parks and 19 boat landings, a feat that requires a staff of 65 full-time CCPRC employees. These employees, efficiently broken up into smaller teams, each spend time on the Festival of Lights project, but even they need help getting the job done. That's where the volunteers come in.
The James Island County Park utilizes "campground hosts," visitors that put in 40+ hours of labor each on the project. In return, the park grants them free use to water and electricity. Each volunteer brings various areas of expertise, something Chappell needs desperately to make the show happen.
Chappell says the folks that offer up their time and knowledge are the real heroes of the festival. "It's better to have volunteerism because they look at it not as job, but as something they have to do now," he says. "They're fantastic. They come to maintenance and do nothing but lights bulbs and a couple various jobs like drop trash off, pick up litter, and help with recycling."
For the Love of the Show
Having worked together in growing the Festival for the last 20 years, Chappell and Raab clearly have higher motives for doing the work. For Raab, spending all year building displays in the heat of a Lowcountry summer is worth it. "This job is a lot of work in the summer sweathouse, but every year, to see kids' faces light up, it's all worth it," said Raab.
Raab sees the financial side as well. "The other reward I feel personally is, for $10, a family can come in and see the show," he says.
Chappell is proud of the County Parks' ability to price the event reasonably as well. "Our goal is to be efficient, if we're not efficient, the cost to the consumer has to go up," he says. "We've charged only $10 a car for 10 years. The park wants a really great family tradition. It's history now, its something that people look forward to. We want to be so efficient that we can keep the costs down. If you can do a quality show and people come to it, the reward is pretty good."
A lot of time, effort and hardworking people go in to putting this project together. Here's a look at some of the numbers:
* Individual Lights: 2,000,000+
* Large Displays: 650+
* Display Pieces: 1,000+
* Workers: 150+
* Time to power up and power down the lights: 45 minutes each
* Sets of mini-lights: 10,000 (500,000 lights, for 56 displays)
* Avg. nightly light bill: $1,000
* Electrical Breakers used in show: 6,000
* Life of glass bulbs: 3,000 hours
* Nights of Show: 52
* Annual Visitors: 200,000+
* Trailers used to store lights: 29
* Price in 1999: $10/car
* Price in 2009: $10/ car
* Avg. number of glass bulbs changed each year during 4-week period: 170,000
* Avg. number of displays refurbished or added each year: 35
* Avg. Weight of pig cooked for staff appreciation party: 130 lbs.
Charlie Morrison is staff writer for the James Island Messenger and West Of, both publications of Wiser Time Publishing. Contact Charlie at 843-297-0528 or by email at MorrisonCD31@yahoo.com or visit the James Island Messenger at JAMES ISLAND MESSENGER
For information on Charleston, SC and Folly Beach, SC real estate, please call Randall Sandin at 843-209-9667 or email at rsandin@carolinaone.com. Search the Charleston MLS for free at CHARLESTON REAL ESTATE SEARCH
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