The University will hold its 24th annual Lighting of the Lawn Friday, a time-honored annual holiday concert and light show which features performances from student a cappella groups, bands and dance teams. After the performance portion of the event, which begins at 7 p.m., the Lawn and Rotunda will be illuminated with multicolored lights at 8:55 p.m., followed by LOTL’s first drone light show in the sky above.
The theme for this year’s event is “Lights Up,” which Chelsea Huffman and Riley McNeill — LOTL co-chairs and fourth-year College students — said is both an allusion to the drone show and a metaphor for how the event brings the community together.
“Lights up serves as a reminder that we need to reflect on and celebrate our shared experiences, and it highlights the ways that we uplift each other and the strengths that we each bring to the University,” Huffman said.
LOTL is open to the University and Charlottesville communities. According to the chairs, an estimated 15,000 people are expected to attend the event, which is consistent with previous years.
In addition to holiday performances, this year, LOTL will feature a 10 to 15 minute drone light show — the first for the University and Charlottesville. According to McNeill, the show will be put on by lighting company Sky Elements, which is responsible for 70 percent of drone shows in the U.S. Sky Elements placed third on “America’s Got Talent” in September with a drone show that AGT Host Simon Cowell called a “really special act.”
First held in 2001 as a way to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and bring the University together after the tragedy, LOTL has continued in the following years as a way to foster and celebrate the University and Charlottesville communities ahead of the holiday season.
The tradition again worked to bring the University together in the face of tragedy after the Nov. 13, 2022 shooting that killed three University students. In the years since, the event has displayed lights that read “1 15 41” — the numbers of Lavel Davis Jr., D’Sean Perry and Devin Chandler, who lost their lives in the shooting.
To continue to honor their lives, in a portion of the drone show, the drones will assemble to display “1 15 41” in the sky in memory of Davis Jr., Perry and Chandler. The drones will then move onto holiday displays with stars and a depiction of a snowball fight, as well as show University imagery like the V sabre logo.
“There's going to be a lot of different U.Va.-specific imagery in the sky,” McNeill said. “We tried to get them to put Jim Ryan's face up there, but he did not like that idea at all.”
In addition to the musical performances, the event will also feature four poetry readers from the University community to read holiday poems — Vicki Gist, senior associate dean of students, Larry Sabato, director the University’s Center for Politics, Philip Bourne, dean of the School of Data Science, and former Virginia rower Sky Dahl.
The event will also feature concessions available for purchase on South Lawn from local food trucks, including It’s Poppin Time, Carpe Donuts, Otto Turkish Street Food and Sombrero’s. The LOTL committee will also provide complimentary hot chocolate, apple cider and other refreshments for those in attendance.
In light of these amenities and the new addition of a drone show, this year’s LOTL comes with a higher price tag — the cost increased from around $80,000 last year to over $100,000 this year, according to Huffman and McNeill. In addition, an unexpected roadbump from last year’s light show, in which some of the lights did not turn on, led the LOTL committee to purchase all new lights, also increasing the event’s cost this year.
“At the beginning of this year, we were starting from the lowest place [of funds], actually, other than the first year, when they had literally nothing,” McNeill said.
To ensure they could put on a memorable and special night for the community, the LOTL committee fundraised for the event through donations from the Parents Fund, the Alumni Association, the Office of Student Affairs and the Honor Committee to overcome these funding hurdles. To further “cut costs” for the event, McNeill said members of the LOTL committee assist Facilities Management with putting up the lights.
Beyond fostering a fun and joyful environment, LOTL will work to create a safe atmosphere for attendees by providing security from local police and designated entrances with walk-through metal detectors for attendees. While there is no clear bag policy for the event, bags may be subject to search and liquids will not be permitted past security. LOTL is free to attend and open to the public.
Even as the specific contents of the LOTL show change from year to year, its community-building aspect is what makes the event attractive to some students. Third-year College student Maya Wrona said she attended LOTL for the first time last year and is looking forward to the event again because of the community she felt.
“I really liked the environment that was created,” Wrona said. “It really felt like we were a community, like a real ‘this is U.Va.’ moment.”
For those that have yet to attend, the committee has worked on promoting the event to encourage new student turnout through posts on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, as well as tabling on the Lawn and writing promotionals with sidewalk chalk. Still, the chairs said the main way students find out about LOTL is through word of mouth.
Wrona’s enthusiasm for the event also demonstrates the strength of word of mouth advertising.
“I think I'm gonna bring some of my friends that haven't gone before, just because I think this is a really pivotal experience for what it means to be a U.Va. student,” Wrona said.
Even first-years who may not know as many past-LOTL attendees are still hearing about the excitement that surrounds the event.
First-year College student Grace Faughnan said she is excited to attend LOTL for the first time after hearing about the event from her sister, who is a second-year at the University.
“She’s been talking about it probably since September,” Faughnan said. “She's like, ‘Lighting of the Lawn is my favorite U.Va. tradition, you have to go.’”
First-year College student Naomi Million said she heard about LOTL from a close family friend who was part of the LOTL committee and was adamant that Million attend the event. Million said she is most looking forward to experiencing LOTL with a large community.
“I don't think there's very many things that are universal experiences anymore,” Million said. “I think the fact that there's something that everybody at the school can say they've experienced or did together is really cool.”
Nina Broderick and Thomas Baxter contributed to the reporting in this article.
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