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This Christmas, the celebrated Trail of Lights is turned off... again

Trail of Lights has announced today that the planned festival for 2011 has been canceled due to lack of sponsorship.

In an official statement released this morning, festival co-producers Amy Vercuysse and Candace Miller communicated that “this year’s community holiday event will no longer include Trail of Lights due to a shortfall in funding.”

Even with plans to charge a nominal admission, projected costs nearing $1 million proved too great as the festival was unable to meet a pre-event cash goal of $250,000, preventing any further movement on the project.

The trail, which was scheduled to start construction today, has been reduced to “Austin HolidayFest” and will be held December 4th -11th. The new festival will hold some of the staples of Trails past: Santa’s House, food and novelty vendors and, most importantly, the City Tree Lighting.

Citing difficult economic conditions, Vercuysse and Miller expressed regret that the Trail would not be coming back after a three year hiatus, but plan to start efforts toward a successful Trail of Lights 2012.
In the meantime, event producers hope that the new Austin HolidayFest will provide a free, family-friendly alternative.
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