Horns honked, headlights flashed and people cheered at the Electric Light Fantasy Holiday Laser and Music Extravaganza on Wednesday.
A more powerful laser show than last year impressed the crowd at two promotional shows for sponsors at the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park.
This is the second year Emerald Owl Productions has brought its unique nighttime presentation to Wilson.
For viewers, the combination of mist and light gave off the appearance of a Hollywood movie production.
Jason Osborne won a ticket to the show in a drawing from Bridgestone, where he works as a maintenance technician.
Osborne took his whole family. They watched the show from the back of his Ford F-150 pickup truck.
“I liked it. My sister lives in Maryland. I sent her a video of it,” Osborne said.
Osborne said he would recommend the show to others.
“I liked all the Christmas lights and all the music with it,” Osborne said. “I just liked the way it looked. It rings in the Christmas season.”
Stephanie Brady took her daughters, Ashlynn and Kiley.
“I packed them up after school and came out this way, and luckily, Wilson Energy was kind enough to provide me a ticket to come on in. It was wonderful, It was amazing,” Brady said. “The ending and the one in the middle. All the different lights.”
Wilson Energy is the light show’s presenting sponsor.
“I think it’s going well. This is our first run-through,” said Jeff Bell, executive director at the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park. “They came out last night and did some tests, so we are really happy with it. They have made a lot of improvements since last year, higher-powered lasers and doing different stuff with the fog machines.”
Last year’s show used one 25-watt laser, two 10-watt lasers and two 5-watt lasers.
“This year, we have one 25, two 30s and two 10s, so it is quite a bit more power, and we are excited about that,” Bell said.
Bell said the first promo night was to celebrate sponsors.
The shows were popular last year.
“Everyone had a great time last year. We are excited to make it even bigger and better this year. Last year we did four days, and we ended up adding a fifth day because we sold them all out,” Bell said. “This year we are starting with eight days of ticketed beyond today to see what we can do.”
Bell said he wasn’t sure how much the show earned last year.
“We did very well. It is so great to have sponsors that help us pay for the event, and then we can recoup for the nonprofit to help maintain the whirligigs and do other programming throughout the year,” Bell said.
The shows are 6, 7 and 8 p.m. today through Sunday and Dec. 9-12 at the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park.
