What’s new as Nights of Lights flips the switch this weekend

There are only a few pages left in this year’s calendar — that means it’s time for St. Augustine’s annual holiday celebration, Nights of Lights.

This year’s festivities will begin Saturday with the Light Up! Night ceremony, when city officials will turn on the twinkling lights that cover the city’s historic downtown.

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It’s a little earlier than last year, part of a change by the city to trim a week off this year’s event.

That’s just one change aimed at managing the massive crowds the city expects this year. Here’s what you need to know.

Nights of Lights pedestrians

Like last year, the city of St. Augustine is offering free shuttles from designated parking lots to the downtown core. This year, the free shuttles will operate for more days, though. That service also has been combined with a handful of other traffic mitigation measures to discourage traffic from backing up around the Plaza de la Constitución.

While city officials have acknowledged that completely eliminating congestion isn’t possible, they have instituted measures to steer people toward the free shuttle lots on North San Marco Avenue, near the intersection of King Street and U.S. 1 and at the St. Johns County Health Department.

New traffic patterns are designed to prevent drivers from clogging up residential neighborhoods, and new parking rules limit parking for nonresidents in neighborhoods near downtown and increase fines for parking outside of designated spots. The parking change has proven to be controversial among some business owners.

Emphasis on public safety

Last year, with record-breaking crowds on Nights of Lights’ most popular evenings, residents complained of a lack of a police presence, trash cans overflowing as custodians couldn’t navigate the crowds to reach them and disorderly conduct from tourists and others.

This year, the city increased how many of its own employees, including law enforcement, will be out and about. That move, in conjunction with street barricades aimed at preventing people from driving into crowds, is all part of an increased focus on public safety.

More public restrooms

Finding a place to use the restroom in downtown St. Augustine isn’t easy on normal days, but it can be especially challenging when thousands of people are in the downtown area admiring the city’s holiday displays.

To prevent cases where visitors are urinating in public — which city officials said did occur last year — the city will offer public restrooms throughout the historic downtown.

The restrooms are one of the new additions the city is offering thanks to St. Johns County giving the city $650,000 more for the event than it did last year.

An app to find it all

To help attendees keep track of the shuttle schedule in real time, as well as find parking and restrooms, the local tourism bureau, Visit St. Augustine, has launched its own free Nights of Lights phone app.

Visit St. Augustine President Susan Phillips says the app will be as useful to locals who need to keep track of the new changes the city has instituted as it will be to out-of-town visitors who have never been to St. Augustine before.

It will also, she says, give business owners the resources to answer questions they may not have otherwise known the answer to.

“Now they’ve got a tool to say, ‘Hey, you’re coming during a really cool time when we have this wonderful event going on, but here’s what you need to know so that you can plan accordingly,’” Phillips says. “It will help everyone to be a little more cohesive.”

More information about Visit St. Augustine’s app is available on the visitors and conventions bureau’s website.