For nearly two months every year there is an apparition that catches one's eye just north of Interstate 75. This series of colored, twinkling lights that stretch across miles of Bluegrass landscape is the culmination of a months-long process that starts in February. It comes to a crescendo with the illumination of over one million lightbulbs in mid-November when the Kentucky Horse Park flips the switch on its Southern Lights.
Originally created by the Kentucky Horse Park Foundation in 1993 as a way to draw visitors to the park during the off-season, the Southern Lights display was viewed by over 109,000 paying customers in 2006, and countless others who caught a glimpse while traveling through Fayette County. Each year new lighted figures are added and from time to time the three-mile route changes. This year construction at the park in preparation for the 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games will necessitate some adjustments; evaluating the past year's traffic flow can also cause rerouting.
From dragons to the 12 Days of Christmas, to a motion-activated fireworks scene that has an element of animation, 112 displays will make up this year's route. These scenes are often comprised of multiple metal frames which must be set up, checked, wired, and taken down by hand.
When the 200-plus stars, snowflakes, and other holiday depictions aren't lighting up the night, they are stored frame-to-frame in a tobacco barn at the back of the park property. They emerge, one by one, starting in September. Three-man crews carefully move them from the barn onto flatbed trailers, which are then used to transport them to sites all around the park where they will be set up and illuminated.
Jerry Wright, a Horse Park maintenance worker, has been involved with the Southern Lights setup for eight years. "I'm probably the only one who's [still here] who has put them together," he said. When new displays join the event each fall, his crew has to try and decipher which way is up, and how to most appropriately configure the bulb-lined frame. "There's no directions [that come with them,] he said.
Once Wright's crew sets the frames out