ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — The holiday season has seen an unprecedented influx of visitors to St. Augustine’s renowned Nights of Lights event, according to city officials.

“I’ve never witnessed crowds like this before,” remarked Stacy Worrel, who attended the festive spectacle.

While the city hasn’t officially tallied the number of attendees, City Manager David Birchim shared with First Coast News that city staff involved with the event have observed it to be the busiest year yet.

“There’s no doubt we’ve reached peak capacity during certain times,” Birchim explained. “Our downtown is quaint and historic, with narrow streets that add to its charm but can’t accommodate large crowds easily.”

Last year’s record-breaking attendance led to significant traffic jams as visitors navigated the downtown area in search of parking or simply to enjoy the lights.

Those changes prompted the city to implement new techniques this year to keep cars moving, such as adding officers to direct traffic at intersections and crosswalks, and placing barricades along sidewalks to keep pedestrians out of the streets.

The city reopened its satellite parking lots outside of downtown, and this year, more shuttles – or buses – are taking people into downtown.

“We are shuttling more people this year than we ever have,” Birchim said.

That may mean fewer cars were driving around downtown.  However, sometimes this year, the estimated ride times (as indicated on the Nights of Lights app)  on the shuttles have been an hour or more… for a 2-mile ride. So that prompted some people to take ride-shares from the lots or just drive their own cars into downtown, negating the whole point of the satellite lots.

“There certainly were peak periods when there are too many people coming into town for it to be an enjoyable experience for the folks who live here. I’ll just be blunt,” Birchim said. 

The increased parking fine of $100 along residential streets has kept more cars from parking there illegally.

And the additional portable restrooms this year have also resolved last year’s problem of public urination, according to Birchim.

Most people agree, the city’s changes this year have helped. However, there are still so many people coming into a tiny town, and it’s hard to sustain the crowds. The city manager says the city will work on various improvements for next year.

The Nights of Lights wraps up January 11th.