The Plaza de la Constitución is lit up during Nights of Lights in downtown St. Augustine. l St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra, and The Beaches Visitors and Convention Bureau
Published on September 2, 2025 at 2:11 pm
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To ensure St. Augustine’s blockbuster holiday event runs more smoothly this year, St. Johns County is chipping in more than half a million dollars on top of what it did last year.
The approval came during a St. Johns County Commission meeting Tuesday morning.
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St. Augustine initially requested $1 million from the county to help fund the Nights of Lights event this year, but the amount was shifted down to $850,000. That’s still an increase over the $200,000 the county gave the city last year.
The funds will come from money generated by local bed taxes, or taxes on hotel and short-term rental stays. Per state statute, those dollars can be used only to fund tourism-related activities that draw people into the area.
City officials told the County Commission the money will be used to help pay for expenses like extending the number of days when a free shuttle will take people from designated sites to the city’s historic downtown, and costs associated with lighting and the flashy kickoff that marks the start of the multimonth event.
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St. Augustine City Manager David Birchim told county commissioners the city’s request for the additional $650,000 would be a non-recurring request. Next year, Birchim said, the city does not anticipate asking for any more than $200,000.
Speaking with Jacksonville Today, Birchim explained that the infusion of funding from the county will allow for better testing of what works and what doesn’t for mitigating and making the Nights of Lights crowds move as smoothly through the city as they can.
For example, while the county funding is, in part, paying for aspects of the event that happen every year, it also will allow the city to determine how effective more free shuttles are at keeping the roads as congestion-free as possible.
“It’s just a matter of determining exactly what amount of money is going to be needed for this event, coming up with an annual budget and then working in that budget, which is fiscally responsible,” Birchim said. “We’re even trying to come up with a per-day annual expense for Nights of Lights … and that will guide us on how long the event takes place.”
Each year, the St. Augustine City Commission votes on how long Nights of Lights should run. The event this year will start earlier, end earlier and trim one week off the end compared with last year.
The approval for increasing the county’s support for the event was unanimous among the members of the County Commission.
“I’m sitting up here trying to think of the best way that we can be a partner, be a good neighbor and collaborate,” County Commissioner Christian Whitehurst said. “We are in the unfortunate position of having to be good fiscal stewards of this money, and so I just want to make sure we’re taking all things into account.”
Some members of the board suggested adding stipulations on the funding — like creating an intergovernmental task force for the event or requiring the city to submit receipts rather than receive the tourist development tax funds upfront. But the commission ultimately cast a single vote on approving the funds and nothing else.
