This festive season, get ready to have your socks knocked off by dancing lights and jaw-dropping musical performances. Here’s Alex Miranda, ready to rock those jingle bells to tell us more.
It is a wonderful experience, right by the beach — a special and creative way to make this time of year extra magical.
Ahh, the glow of lights by the beach is so … SoFlo.
Paired with a live orchestra performance? Then it’s a Holiday Festival of Lights.
Michael Rossi, founder, Miami Beach Classical Music Festival: “So the orchestra performs, a full symphony orchestra. While that’s happening, the projections have been timed to correlate with the music, so the whole street lights up. We make all the buildings turn to frost and ice.”
The interactive light-and-sound extravaganza starts at the crown jewel of South Beach, The Betsy Hotel.
Michael Rossi: “They’re just one of the iconic hotels here in Miami Beach, and they’re so committed to the arts. Just looking around, I thought, ‘This would be a perfect place to do a Festival of Lights. We got the park, people can see, high traffic area, beautiful Art Deco buildings.'”
For the second year, the breathtaking show takes over the 1400 block of Ocean Drive.
Michael Rossi: “Families can sit at the park, they can sit on the curb. They can reserve VIP seating if they want to be close to the stage and action. They’re the one that gets the snow on them a lot.”
There are new additions to feast your eyes on…
Michael Rossi: “This year, we’re going much bigger. Now we’ve just added a Christmas tree, we have vendors, and we have more characters, more orchestra. And much longer. It’s gonna be six full performance days.”
And the playlist is all bangers.
Michael Rossi: “We have the famous Carol of the Bells, which is played by an electric violinist. It’s awesome; it opens the show. We have “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.’ We have something new this year, that is a digital Santa, and he can talk to the children, he’s going to ask them what they want for Christmas. And he might just make an appearance as well at the end of each show and say hi, before he goes back to the North Pole.”
The music and lights dancing like sugar plums on top of buildings starts Friday night.
FOR MORE INFO:
Miami Beach Holiday Festival of Lights
Dec. 13-22, 2024
1400 block of Ocean Drive
miamimusicfestival.com/holidayfestivaloflights
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