Dazzling Nights expanding light show at Jacksonville Arboretum for 2022 holiday season

Dazzling Nights, the attraction that lights up the trails at the Jacksonville Arboretum & Botanical Gardens with holiday decorations, will have more of a "choose your own adventure" feel when it opens this year.

Dazzling Nights made its debut in Jacksonville last year, drawing big crowds to walk through lighted tunnels, laser forests, a musical bridge and "snow" fall. But, because COVID-19 restrictions were still in place, it was set up to encourage visitors to move from one attraction to the next in a linear path.

When it opens for the season on Nov. 25, things will be a little different. 

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"It’s an entirely new show, totally redesigned, all brand new," said Cole NeSmith, founder of Memoir Agency, the company behind Dazzling Nights in Jacksonville, Orlando and, new this year, Pittsburgh.

New attractions this year include a live show with live performers singing holiday songs on a stage while 60 "kinetic LED balls" move in time with the music, plus a "light maze," a 3,600-square-foot maze made up of lighted six-foot-tall walls.

"You can think of it as sort of a corn maze, but a Christmas version," NeSmith said.

Visitors will also find a giant, inflatable Yeti, bounce caves and a slide, and meet-and-greets with a forest guardian, a hedgehog and a living tree.

It takes a full-time staff of 13 people to plan the light shows, and a crew of about 20 on each site to run the event. It takes about 16 or 17 days to set up Dazzling Nights.

NeSmith said his company spent a lot of time last year running electricity to remote areas of the arboretum and setting up the basic infrastructure to deal with large crowds.

"The Jacksonville Arboretum is an incredible space, but one of the beautiful things about it is it’s all natural," NeSmith said.  

The event is set up on the trails at the arboretum, some of which are paved and some of which are not, so there may be areas of Dazzling Nights that are inaccessible to visitors with mobility issues. 

Tickets are only available online at dazzlingjax.com and are sold on a timed basis, to keep the trails from getting too crowded. But once past the gates, visitors are free to go where they like and stay as long as they want. 

"One of the things we know our guests love is the opportunity to choose their own adventure and spend as much time as they like in each place," NeSmith said. 

Parking is limited at the arboretum — Dazzling Nights charges an extra $12 to park on-site — so free shuttles were used last year to allow visitors to park at a nearby shopping center. NeSmith said they'll use a similar system this year, but he wasn't ready to say where the remote lot will be. Visitors should plan to park at least 30 minutes before the time on their tickets to allow for the trip on the shuttle. 

Dazzling Nights Jacksonville

Jacksonville Arboretum and Gardens, 1445 Millcoe Road

5:30-9 p.m. Nov. 25-Jan. 1

$25 adults, $22 kids, ages 2 and under free

Info: dazzlingjax.com