EAST PEORIA, Ill. — An ultimate battle of Christmas lights.
ABC’s The Great Christmas Light Fight showcases epic displays of Christmas lights in a competition, and the East Peoria Festival of Lights and Folepi’s Winter Wonderland are in the running for season 8.
Thursday night a crowd of people gathered to celebrate and to watch host and judge Carter Oosterhouse see the parade for the first time.
“This is not something that we’ve normally seen before on the show,” Oosterhouse said.
Typically the competition show is about houses decorated to the extreme for the holidays, but now they are moving into showcasing a more heavyweight division.
“But when you put it on something that’s mobile and moves, and for this parade it runs like 2 and a half miles to get to point B, and that’s impressive,” Oosterhouse said.
Tim Cundiff, who is acting as Folepi this year, said it is a very exciting event.
“This is great for the community, great for the area, great for the Christmas season. I’m so honored to be a part of such a beautiful celebration [and] watching everyone come together for an event like this, of epic proportions,” Cundiff said.
East Peoria is proud of the Festival of Lights and all the work that goes into the show all year.
“And it’s now our job to show the rest of the country, and the rest of the world, what we’re all about,” Cundiff said.
While ABC is currently filming season 8 of The Great Christmas Light Fight, season 7 will premiere on December 2. December of 2020 is when The Festival of Lights and Folepi’s Winter Wonderland will debut on the show.
