Chicago’s most spectacular light show and festival has returned for its 30th year to the Magnificent Mile. The 2021 BMO Harris Bank Magnificent Mile Lights Festival lit up the Chicago streets for a whole weekend, starting with a ceremonial tree-lighting at The Wrigley Building and continuing in a fun-filled thoroughfare of family activities and a grand parade of floats, balloons, celebrities, and musical performances. The action-packed event illuminated more than 1 million lights along The Magnificent Mile, and concluded with a spectacular fireworks show over the Chicago River. 

This year saw significant celebrations throughout the festivities. In addition to celebrating its 30th year, the BMO Lights Festival’s opening tree-lighting ceremony took place at The Wrigley Building Centennial Plaza in honor of the building’s 100 year anniversary. Helping to light up the parade were Grand Marshals Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse from the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2021 in addition to the 93rd birthdays of Minnie and Mickey themselves. 

This year’s festival also saw spectacular attendance numbers, with 800,000 tourists and locals alike gathering to see the show and frequent local businesses. The Magnificent Mile Lights Festival was also broadcasted the following Sunday night by ABC 7 Chicago and saw record viewing numbers as compared with past years. This broadcast of the weekend’s festivities will be syndicated out to 99% of the United States, as well as Ontario, Canada. 

Helping to make this festival possible are Gail Spreen and Norene Chip, two of our talented Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty agents. Gail has been Chair of the festival since 2019 and is immensely proud of how this year’s event has made Chicago an iconic spot to celebrate the holidays. Norene sits on the Leadership Committee for the BMO Lights Festival and is proud of the entire festival team who have helped this become the 3rd largest parade in the United States.

If you missed attending the festival in person or didn’t catch the first broadcast, you still have a chance to tune in and see the magic for yourselves: the broadcast for this event will be aired again on ABC 7 Chicago at 6 p.m. on Saturday, December 11, as well as a special Christmas Day broadcast on Saturday, December 25 at 8 a.m. 

Want to become a part of the team that makes this yearly holiday event possible? Visit the website for the Magnificent Mile Association for more information on how to get involved in Chicago’s most spectacular Christmas festival.