The Festival of Lights have come and gone for another year.

Woodlawn Regional Park manager Maureen Daoust said there were 51 exhibits this year, which was 10 more than last year.

"We had a number of businesses that were returning participants, but also a number of new ones," Daoust said. "We had service organizations, we had some family groups, all kinds of different groups that participated. The sky is the limit...anybody that is wanting to put a group together to enter, we welcome anybody to come."

Daoust said she's seen growth in some of the returning participants over the years.

"The first year they enter, sometimes their display might be very basic and then they kind of see what other people have done and they springboard off of those ideas, or they are collecting or gathering during the summer months to prepare for it, so it's definitely an exciting thing," she said.

Daoust estimated that the total number of onlookers this year was in the thousands, including people in their vehicles and those who were on foot.

She added that the event has grown from just 11 participants in its first year back in 2017.

Daoust said she hopes the park can host Christmas in the Park again next year, an annual event that has had to be cancelled the last couple years due to COVID.

This past year's Festival of Lights ran from Dec. 17-Jan. 8.