Singer Warren Dean Flandez, Dawn Pemberton and Jessie Farrell will be among performers at this year’s Surrey Tree Lighting Festival, event organizers announced Thursday.
The 2018 edition of the event is on Saturday, Nov. 24 at Surrey Civic Plaza, from noon to 7 p.m. Admission is free.
A festival highlight is the lighting of a 58-foot tree in the heart of the plaza, at 6:30 p.m. that evening.
Last year’s event attracted close to 20,000 people throughout the day.
• RELATED STORY: Surrey’s eighth annual Tree Lighting Festival draws 20,000, from 2017.
The Coast Capital Savings-presented festival features a holiday market, free photos with Santa, cookie decorating and a variety of family-friendly attractions.
A “Holiday Fun Zone” on University Drive includes food trucks, games of road hockey, soccer, inflatables and amusement rides.
As well, choirs will perform on the Tree Riser Stage, Snowflake Stage and inside City Centre Library.
Check out last year’s festival in the video posted below.
On the festival grounds, donations will be collected for Surrey Food Bank, Surrey Christmas Bureau, Sophie’s Place and Surrey Fire Fighters’ Charitable Society.
Maureen Young, director of Community Leadership at Coast Capital Savings, called the festival “a great event that brings families and the community together to kick off the holiday season.”
The headliner this year, Flandez is an award-winning, JUNO-nominated Canadian recording artist, as detailed in a bio posted to his website (wdfworld.com/bio).
“(He) describes his music simply as ‘songs with purpose.’ But with an EP that debuted #2 on the iTunes Inspirational Charts Top 100, this Yellowknife-born vocalist has rediscovered his church roots, reignited his faith and found solace in creating inspirational Canadian gospel music with his anticipated full length album ‘Eternally Grateful.’”
Bios for Pemberton, Lovecoast, Farrell and the festival’s other performers – Fresh Groove Productions, The Piano Man (a tribute to Elton John), Rockin’ Robin & the Magical Tree, Westcoast Harmony Chorus and Langley Ukulele Ensemble – can be found at surrey.ca/treelighting.
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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