DETROIT (WXYZ) — The countdown to Light Up the Season is on. Even on a cold, wet night, some Detroiters are already out scoping their spot for the event.
“Just sightseeing, just getting a head start, looking for parking tomorrow, see what's going on tonight,” said Colette Ardis from Detroit.
Ardis will be here with her mom, daughter, and 8 grandkids. It's been a Detroit tradition for 21 years, but this year will be Colette’s first.
"First time coming all these years, yes,” said Ardis.
It’ll also be a first for Olivia Thomas who just moved downtown 3 months ago from Texas.
“The city is just beautiful during the winter, especially with all the lights up, it's great,” Thomas said. "Definitely (looking forward to) seeing the tree get lit and also watching people ice skate, that will be fun.”
Light Up the Season may be the kickoff event for downtown's holiday epicenter, but the Downtown Markets and Cadillac Lodge have been open already for 2 weeks. 27th Letter Books is one of the storefronts in the market.
“It's a tremendous opportunity as far as gaining awareness of our store,” said Co-Owner Andrew Pineda. "We're running into a lot of people that have never heard of us and it's really huge for us to get our name out there.”
For 27th Letter Books, Light Up the Season is set to be a huge night. The local, independent bookstore located on Michigan Ave. in Southwest Detroit has a mini shop in the market with a variety of books, some written by local authors.
"We highlight traditionally underrepresented voices and narratives in all forms,” Pineda said. "This is our first year at the market here, but from folks that have been here before, we hear it's pretty bonkers. It’s pretty busy.”
Detroit Police expect crowds upwards of 50,000 people, bringing in extra officers to patrol downtown.
“I won't tell you everything of what we’re doing, but we have things in place to keep the public safe,” said Detroit Police Interim Chief Todd Bettison.
It’s Bettison's first major event at the helm. He says they’ll have weapons detectors at entrances and help from other agencies. He says some issues the event had in the past were caused by unaccompanied minors.
“It was a lot of teenagers, you know running around, and we don't mind that but it’s more so unsupervised teenagers coming down," Bettison said. "So that’s the reason we’ll be enforcing curfew.”
Bettison says parents can be ticketed for kids violating curfew, and families hope for a fun, safe kick-off to the holidays.
“I think it’s a beautiful time of year," said Ardis. "Everybody comes together as a family, you see so much love in the air.”
According to Bettison, the curfews in the City of Detroit are 8:00 pm for those 15 and under, and kids under 18 can’t be out unsupervised past 11:00 pm.
