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Park Director in Onondaga County Works On Annual Holiday Event For Almost 30 Years Park Director in Onondaga County Works On Holiday Event For Almost 30 Years

By Paolo Confino

Paolo Confino: Lights on the Lake at the Onondaga Lake Park started 32 years ago in 1989…and the park’s Director of Operations Dale Grinolds has seen nearly every single one.

Dale Grinolds: 29 years. I started in 1992. It was my first job out of college and I worked my way up from cleaning bathrooms and one of my first big jobs was running Lights on the Lake my very first year.

Confino: He says that the event is source of pride not just for him…as the guy in charge…but for the whole village of Liverpool.

Grinolds: It’s an iconic kind of thing. So people will know when they think of Lights on the Lake they think of Liverpool…they think of Onondaga Lake Park.

Confino: The two-mile long light display runs along Onondaga Lake’s western shore…along the walking trail which gets converted into a single driving lane for cars…when the sun sets around 4:30 in the afternoon.

Confino: You can get in the car and drive all the way down straight through there but if you come at night…it’ll look like this.

Confino: And that tunnel is a fan favorite.

Confino: What’s your favorite display at Lights on the Lake
Dan Davis: It’s hard to choose but I think I just like going through the tunnel with the lights. It’s nice. It just gives you a feeling that you’re really into it.

Confino: Grinolds and his team start working on the displays as early as September in order to make sure everything’s ready for the holiday season. He says the displays themselves are what’s changed the most over all these years.

Grinolds: The biggest change has just been the size of the show. The number of displays has just climbed astronomically.

Confino: What’s stayed the same over the years is all the shenanigans’ people get up to when they come through. But he kept the specifics to himself.

Grinolds: A lot of crazy stories…some are not fit for print.

LIVERPOOL, NY (NCC News) – The annual Lights on the Lake lightshow is up and running at Onondaga Lake Park. The show has been around since 1989. Dale Grinolds worked at the park’s office for 29 of those 32 years. He’s seen the show grow from a few displays that looked like “something you’d see on your lawn” to the 2-mile-long showcase that stretches the entirety of the western shore of Onondaga Lake.

“The biggest change has just been the size of the show,” Grinolds said. “The number of displays has just climbed astronomically.”

Christmas lights of two people cutting down a Christmas tree
The lights are turned on each day at 4:30 p.m. when the set starts to set and the show opens to the public at 5:00 p.m.
© 2021 Paolo Confino

Grinolds has changed and evolved along with the show. When he first started as an entry level employee in 1992 Lights on the Lake was one the first projects he worked on.

“It was my first job out of college,” Grinolds recalled. “I worked my way up from cleaning bathrooms and one of my first big jobs was running Lights on the Lake my very first year.”

A Christmas light display of a train.
Tickets range from $5.00 for cars all the way up to $75.00 for a coach bus.
© 2021 Paolo Confino

Attendees purchase one ticket per vehicle and get the chance to drive through the lightshow. Letting visitors drive through instead of walking helps ensure more people get the chance to visit given the cold weather in Onondaga County, especially at night. Although one long time resident, Dan Davis, who says he tries to come every year, has a fond memory of winter weather at Lights on the Lake.

“I have a good memory when it was in a snowstorm,” said Davis. “Cars were sliding all over the place, but everybody was having a good time.”

This year the Onondaga County Parks Department expects approximately 43,000 cars will drive through the display before it closes on January 14th. Last year, was a record-breaking year because of the pandemic, with roughly 55,000 cars attending. Grinolds is proud that show was open last year and that it was able to provide county residents with something to do when many other activities were closed.

A light display of a castle as a car drives through.
The Onondaga Parks Department estimates that 130,000 total people will attend Lights on the Lake this year. An average of three per car.
© 2021 Paolo Confino

“Last year we were very proud to be one of the few things that people could do during the pandemic,” said Grinolds.

Even though 2021 attendance is expected to return to pre-pandemic levels Grinolds said he “doesn’t consider that a negative.”

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