Holiday Night Lights: Largest Electro-Lumenescent Show in US

New York’s Central Park Conservancy Holiday Lighting extravaganza, sponsored by Con Edison for the fourth consecutive year, will illuminate the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center on Central Park’s Harlem Meer.

"The holiday lights at the Dana Center is a wonderful new tradition that welcomes New Yorkers to enjoy the beautiful northern section of Central Park," says Frances A. Resheske, Con Edison’s senior vice president for public affairs.

"Peace on Earth" is the theme of the light show, with a dove flying around an illuminated globe as snowflakes cascade across the tableau. The show is "the largest outdoor electro-lumenescent (EL) fiber display in the United States," says designer Marsha Stern of Marsha Stern Lighting Design & Consulting Inc.

Electro-lumenescent light uses low-watt fiber optics to produce highly visible kinetic displays, the same technology used in the Blue Man Group’s Off-Broadway production. Unique this year is new lighting on the Dana Center’s cupola.

The holiday lights were lit during a ceremony Thursday, Dec. 9, 2004 at the Dana Center and may be seen every day through December 28.

In addition to Marsha Stern’s design, craftspeople from Production Solutions Inc. of Brooklyn; Live Wire Enterprises of Queens; Catmando Design of Margaretville, N.Y.; Rose Brand of Manhattan; Capital Scenic Inc. of Garnerville, N.Y.; and 4 Wall Entertainment of Moonachie, N.J., provided their resources to the lighting program.