Durham lights tower to signal start of holiday season

The holiday lights went on in Durham Friday night at American Tobacco Campus. The festivities continue Saturday with a parade at 4 p.m.

Posted 8:40 p.m. Dec 4, 2009 — Updated 3:46 a.m. Dec 5, 2009

DURHAM, N.C. — The holiday lights went on in Durham Friday night at American Tobacco Campus.

Organizers said more than 1,300 people joined WRAL's Ken Smith for an evening of music, lights and falling snow.

The flakes were manufactured, but the goodwill was real. Visitors brought donations to feed the beneficiaries of the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle's BackPack Buddies program.

Luminarias provided by Girl Scout Troop 514 lit the way to the Lucky Strike water tower – centerpiece of the campus. The Welkin Ringers handbell choir from Aldersgate and Mt. Sylvan United Methodist churches rung in the start of an hour-long celebration.

Members of the Durham School of the Arts Concert Chorale and Advanced Middle School Chorus, and singers from Morehead Montessori Magnet Elementary School and the Club Boulevard Arts & Humanities Magnet School provided musical entertainment.

The holiday festivities continue Saturday with a parade at 4 p.m. The floats and bands will step off from the corner of Blackwell and Jackie Robinson streets near Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

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