Belgrade's Festival of Lights Starts and Ends in a Park on East Cameron
November 12, 2026
November 12, 2026
Last November, the lights at the Belgrade Light Park came on on a Tuesday night. Volunteers had put up the Christmas displays the weekend before. Belgrade News reported that local families walked through the displays that first night while a food truck parked nearby sold warm drinks. There was no stage and no crowd, just the lights coming on.
That's still the best way to understand Belgrade's Festival of Lights in 2026. Most of the festival is a walking path behind the Belgrade Senior Center that stays lit every night from Nov. 24 to Jan. 8. Its first and last events happen in the same park, and both are low-key on purpose. Everything louder fits into one Saturday in between.
The Holiday Light Park is at Belgrade Senior Center Park, 92 East Cameron. The Belgrade Community Coalition's Light Park page says the park runs Nov. 24 through Jan. 8, with the lights coming on at dusk. Check that page for the nightly hours before a late visit. That's 46 nights in a row. The rest of the festival's scheduled events take up three evenings and one Saturday.
The coalition says the walking path will have sparkling lights, a giant ornament for photos, and the Memorial Lights Tunnels, along with other displays. The giant ornament is the obvious place for holiday card photos, and because the park stays lit into January, you don't have to get that photo on opening night.
Locals have long carried this festival. The Belgrade Chamber of Commerce started it in 1996, and the Belgrade Community Coalition runs it now. Last season's setup showed how much of it depends on volunteers. Belgrade News reported that Panther wrestlers, who had helped in earlier years, worked alongside members of Central Valley Fire, a NorthWestern Energy crew with boom trucks, and other community members to install the displays.
The season starts Tuesday, Nov. 24, at 6 p.m. with Flip the Switch Night, a countdown to turning on the lights at the Light Park for the first time. The coalition calls it "a relaxed, low-key evening to enjoy the sparkle of the holidays."
That's a deliberate choice. The festival's biggest gathering comes later, downtown. Opening night stays small, and it lands two days before Thanksgiving, so you can stop by on a weeknight before the holiday rush.
After nearly three quiet weeks at the park, the rest of the festival happens on Saturday, Dec. 12. Here's how the day runs, using the times on the coalition's schedule:
All four events run on one day, and they connect. The 5K feeds into the outfit contest, and the market's hours leave time to shop before the evening on Main Street.
This is the sixth annual Belgrade Holiday Market, and the coalition says it will have more than 100 local vendors. The organizers' list covers a lot of ground: handcrafted jewelry, custom leather goods, homemade jams, jellies and salsas, chocolates, specialty teas, cocoa bombs, pottery, artwork, boutique clothing, furniture, dog accessories, fresh flowers, custom baked goods, and gluten-free treats.
There will be a food court with lunch and coffee. Fizz and Sticks is coming too, with waffles on a stick and dirty sodas. If you're spending the whole day at the festival, the market can be where you eat lunch.
The Jingle Jog 5K starts and finishes at the Mercantile Building and loops through the surrounding Belgrade neighborhoods. It's open to "runners, walkers, strollers, skippers, and hoppers of all ages." RunSignup lists the start at 11 W. Main Street at 10 a.m. Registration is $20, and the price goes up after 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 12, the day this post goes live. The race supports BelGREAT.
If you run in festive gear, you're automatically entered in the Get Ugly Christmas Outfit Contest, held at 11:30 a.m. at the Rhino Lounge. The 90 minutes between the start and the contest give walkers and stroller pushers plenty of time to finish and walk over still in costume.
By 5 p.m. in mid-December it's well past sunset, which is why the evening event is the one held on Main Street. The coalition describes the Holiday Hoopla as a free, all-ages hometown celebration. You walk down Main Street, visit downtown businesses, check out local vendors and organizations, and listen to seasonal music until 7:30. When Flip the Switch Night's announcement mentions what comes next, this is the event it points to and calls the "big holiday celebration."
Five days after Main Street fills up, the last scheduled event brings everyone back to East Cameron. Memorial Lights Night is Thursday, Dec. 17, at 6 p.m. at the Holiday Light Park.
According to the coalition's Memorial Lights page, the evening includes a message from a local pastor, local choirs, and a moment of silence. Afterward, people walk through the Light Park and the Memorial Lights Tunnels to see ornaments hung with loved ones' names.
You can take part by buying a named ornament for the tunnels. It costs $20 per person the first year and $10 in later years, so families who return each December pay half price to keep a name up. The ornaments stay on display after the ceremony, and the page lists the memorial display running from Dec. 17 through Jan. 8.
The tunnels themselves are up from the start of the season. Last year, Belgrade News listed two Memorial Lights Tunnels among the displays in the park the week the lights came on.
If you go to only one event, the dates are easy to keep straight:
The park is the one part of the festival you can visit on any night that suits you, for more than six weeks. The downtown events are over by Christmas week, but the park stays lit through New Year's and on until Jan. 8.
I love this time of year in Belgrade, and East Cameron is on my list of evening stops between Thanksgiving and early January. If you're hosting family over the holidays, or you're new to the Gallatin Valley and want to know which local traditions to make your own, I'm happy to share what I know. Let's Connect with Debbie McEachron and talk about the places that make this valley feel like home in December.
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