For the 29th consecutive year, Balboa Park will host its December Nights festival, the largest free community festival in San Diego. The event, presented by Barona Band of Mission Indians, takes place Friday, Dec. 1, and Saturday, Dec. 2, and is expected to attract more than 250,000 visitors.
Participating Balboa Park museums will open their doors free of charge from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. both evenings. According to Petruzzelli, the value of admissions given away by museums each night is estimated at $750,000.She explained that originally the holiday event was designed as an opportunity to bring people in to shop at the museum stores.
“It really started as an opportunity to allow people to see how pretty the park was for Christmas and then get them into the store to shop,” Petruzzelli said. “Then it just exploded.”
With the ever-changing and expanding event, Petruzzelli said that future December Nights could move into the west side of the park. However, she finds that unlikely.
“That would just be so enormous, I don’t know if people could enjoy it in its entirety,” she said.
This year’s festival will follow the traditions of past December Nights with a few additional treats, including the expanded SDG&E sponsored Holiday Light Canopy, which will double in size.
“It’s absolutely beautiful,” said Debbie Petruzzelli, spokesperson for Balboa Park. “It was pretty last year but it’s going to be beautiful this year.”
The light canopy will provide sparkling coverage for the Holiday Taste of San Diego that will feature cuisine from some of San Diego’s finest restaurants “” the location has moved from its previous spot on the Cabrillo Bridge to the Plaza de Panama in front of the San Diego Museum of Art.
“It will allow for better movement,” Petruzzelli said. “It’s a larger area, we can get more restaurants in there and it won’t be nearly as crowded.”
Prices for the Taste are $20 for 20 tickets or $10 for 8 tickets. Tickets can be exchanged for menu items, which vary in cost from 2-5 tickets depending on the item. Participating restaurants include House of Blues, Aladdin Mediterranean Café, Hard Rock Café and Pampa’s Argentine Bar and Grill.
Even old-time traditions will receive new life this year. The International Christmas Festival at the House of Pacific Relations Cottages, which features food from all over the world, has been a longstanding favorite; however, Barona helped the cottages produce a holiday cookbook with a traditional recipe from each cottage.
Other continuing traditions include the Santa Lucia Procession at the San Diego Museum of Man, musical and dance presentations from the San Diego Junior Theatre, San Diego Civic Youth Ballet and Del Cerro Baptist’s Christmas Story Tree. The Cascades Holiday Marketplace brings crafts, foods and entertainment from around the world and the Palisades Midway harkens back to the 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition and the 1935-36 California-Pacific International Exposition, celebrations to which Balboa Park owes its rich history.
The free event runs Friday, Dec. 1, from 5 p.m. until 10 p.m. and continues Saturday, Dec. 2, from noon until 10 p.m. For more information, visit www.balboapark.org/decembernights/index.php or call (619) 239-0512.