CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The 31st annual Wintrust Magnificent Mile Lights Festival continues tonight with a parade at 5:30 p.m., starring Mickey and Minnie Mouse and, of course, Santa Claus
The parade steps off in the Gold Coast, on Oak Street and Michigan Avenue, will cross the Chicago River and will end at Wacker Drive.
The holiday tradition features floats, a 32-foot Christmas tree and what, scientifically, can only be described as an insane amount of lights. The event is expected to draw tens of thousands to downtown Chicago.
Below, we broke down all the numbers behind one of Chicago’s biggest holiday celebrations.
25,000 visitors are expected to attend events at Lights Festival Lane prior to Saturday's parade. That’s enough people to sell out the United Center — and there would still be a few thousand people without a seat.
600 volunteers, often members of the nonprofit Magnificent Mile Association, will be on hand to present the 2022 festival.
588 musicians from Illinois, Florida and Ohio will march down Michigan Avenue to entertain the masses over the weekend.
34,400 ounces of coffee to fuel all of the volunteers, marching bands and festival-goers will be available at the Dunkin’ Donuts booth at the festival. Zero hours of sleep for those coffee fanatics who run a little too hard on Dunkin’.
7,500 pieces of Eli’s Cheesecake to be handed out at the company’s tent by 20 volunteers. The Eli’s tent will be gathering donations for the Greater Chicago Food Depository with the goal of providing over 4,500 meals.
200 trees along Michigan Avenue, upon which crews have laid 1 million lights. That means each tree’s working with about 5,000 lights.
26,400 lights will illuminate the 32-foot balsam tree in front of the Wrigley Building, which is wrapped in 50 pounds of bows created from 32 yards of fabric.
One Santa will help ring in the holiday season as part of the annual parade.
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