BENTONVILLE — A new assortment of LED lights will be featured on the downtown Bentonville Square starting this weekend.
The lights, which began going up the first weekend of November, will officially be turned at 5:45 p.m. Saturday during a Lighting of the Square ceremony.
“This is a much more subdued event than the First Fridays we have on the Square,” Daniel Hintz, executive director with Downtown Bentonville Inc., said. “It’s more about a nice, calm time down here with the family. So it’s different from the raucous First Fridays.”
After receiving feedback from the community, Hintz said a decision was made to replace the old holiday lights with all new LED-powered bulbs. The new lights on the Square will be all-white, according to Bentonville Parks and Recreation Manager David Wright. The total cost of the lights was approximately $18,000 — $15,000 funded by the Bentonville Advertising and Promotion Commission and the other $3,000 funded by the city.
“We took the approach as a city that the white lights had more of a Christmas feel,” Wright said.
Wright said purchasing new LED lights will pay off in the future.
“The thing about LED lights is they’re going to last longer, so obviously for the environment they are better,” Wright said. “This will also save us from buying new lights every couple of years.”
Included in the lighting ceremony Saturday will be live music by the Arkansas Kids and the Ozark Barbershop Chorus. The 37-piece Ozark Youth Symphony will perform live Christmas collections from 5:30 to 8 p.m., including “Joy to the World” at the time of the actual lighting.
A new addition to the lighting activities will be the Miss Winter Wonderland pageant. Sponsored by the Miss Heart of the Ozarks, the pageant will be a prelude to the Bentonville Winter Wonderland Parade to be held Dec. 5. The winners of the pageant, which starts at 3 p.m. Saturday for age groups ranging from 1 to 18, will advance to the parade and have the opportunity to ride as royalty.
“Our goal first is to raise money for scholarships, and this is a fundraiser to help us do that,” Robyn Ledbetter, executive director of Miss Heart of the Ozarks, said. “But we were also wanting to get partnered with Downtown Bentonville to get more people down here for Winter Wonderland.”
Hintz said the idea of adding a pageant to Saturday’s event was one Downtown Bentonville Inc. welcomed.
“This is our first partnership with Miss Heart of the Ozarks and we couldn’t be more excited,” Hintz said. “The big thing that Downtown Bentonville is aware of is we work to bring as many community members into these events as possible. So when the pageant folks came to us and said they wanted to be involved, it was a no-brainer.”
A food-raising event to help benefit local nonprofit organizations will also be held Saturday night on the Square. Participants will attempt to erect large sculptures using only canned items as the primary source for building blocks, with the food labels being used to help design and color the pieces. Produced by Havenwood, a transitional housing facility for single parents and their children just a half mile from the Square, the food-raising work will be put on display along West Central between Northwest “A” and Main streets following the event.
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