WTAMU hosts 30th Festival of Lights

West Texas A&M University’s Resident Hall Association hosted its 30th annual festival of lights on Thursday.

The festival was held at the university's pedestrian mall located between Old Main and the campus clock tower.

“The festival of lights itself is really symbolic of this time of year, especially the time before finals start and the time before everybody leaves," said Grayson Burch, vice president of external affairs for the RHA. "For some students, this is kind of the last opportunity they have to go and do something with their friends.

“This event symbolizes quite a few different things," he added. "I think there’s the face level 'lights are pretty' answer, there's the last hurrah answer. Also, it shows the appreciation that we have for this university. I love this event because it does means so much."

The event began around sunset with greetings from Canyon Mayor Gary Hinders and WTAMU President Walter Wendler before the WTAMU Chamber Singers, led by director Sean Pullen, began their Christmas concert for the attendees.

Afterward, Burch began the countdown to the lighting of the campus and kicked off the festivities for the winter carnival.

The organizational booths had festive games, a cookie decorating station, a photo booth, and more.

Michael Knox, vice president for student enrollment, engagement, and success at WTAMU, spoke about his favorite part of the winter carnival.

“My favorite part had to be when the lights came on," he said. "They’ve been working on this for three or four weeks, so I see every year in early November as the cranes come out and they decorate the trees, and I watch them work, but you don’t get to see the lights on. The moment when you get to see the fruit of all that work and see how beautiful it is it's just a really neat moment."

WT lit up the campus with more than 82,000 lights to celebrate the holiday season.

“Festival of Lights is one of the few events on campus that we get to combine with the community," Burch said. "I really love this event for that, because not a lot of events invite the Canyon community, that’s something that we try to focus on here."

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: WT lights up the campus for the season with their Festival of Lights