How to go
What: First Financial Holiday Lights at Pyramid Hill
Where: Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park & Museum, 1763 Hamilton-Cleves Road, Ohio 128, Hamilton
When: Nov. 22-Dec. 31. Hours are 6 to 9 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays and 6 to 10 p.m. Fridays-Sundays.
Cost: $20 Mondays-Thursdays, $25 Fridays-Sunday (per carload, limit eight passengers per van). Larger groups may pre-pay by calling (513) 868-1234 or by email at pyramid@pyramidhill.org.
More info: Go online to www.pyramidhill.org or call (513) 868-8336 or (513) 868-1234.
With more than a million lights on display, First Financial Holiday Lights at Pyramid Hill is set to open next Friday, Nov. 22. This annual, award-winning winter attraction features an array of dazzling lights and monumental sculptures.
The display will run through Dec. 31 and will begin at 6 p.m. daily.
Harry T. Wilks, park founder and acting director, Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and Museum, said the new park entrance, a new 50-foot sculpture and more lights at the entrance and exit are only a few of the many exciting focal points of this year’s display
“We have new lights going all the way through the new entrance and exit, and that is about a half mile more that will be lit up, on all-new land, which we got from our recent purchase of 70 more acres,” Wilks said.
With the recent purchase of the additional acreage, Pyramid Hill has created a new entrance to the park that showcases a new, 50-foot sculpture titled “Passage” by sculptor John Henry. Henry’s sculpture weighs around 30,000 pounds. The relocation of the new, less hilly entrance is just south of the old entrance.
“It’s very spectacular, done by a nationally famous sculptor. It’s a commissioned piece and it will be right on 128 at the entrance,” Wilks said. “Pyramid Hill is one of the most unique and one of the largest artwork parks in the world. We have nature and art combined here.”
The annual light display serves as a fundraiser for the nonprofit park. It typically takes about two months for the lights to be put up for the holiday season. Crews began placing the lights around the end of September. Currently, the park is also transitioning to LED lighting.
“It’s been described as the ‘best in the tri-state.’ The whole park is lit up,” Wilks said.
As one of the largest tourist attractions in Butler County, he said, the park attracts visitors from all over the world. Guests from Hamilton, Middletown and West Chester, Northern Kentucky and Indiana also regularly frequent the park. The park annually hosts the six-week, holiday light display and a popular summer art fair and draws more than 35,000 visitors each year. There were about 40 weddings held on the property last year.
Overlooking the Great Miami River, Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and Museum is a nationally recognized 335-acre park with close to 80 outdoor sculptures and an indoor 10,000-square foot Ancient Sculpture Museum with more than 90 authentic sculptures, including Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Etruscan pieces.
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