Around the tallest Christmas “tree” in Indiana, more than 100,000 people will be singing, dancing and rocking with holiday spirit.
People brave the cold, clutching steaming cups of hot chocolate in their gloves and mittens. Children sit on parents shoulders to glimpse the revelry and the moments Monument Circle explodes in light.
The annual Circle of Lights celebration in downtown Indianapolis has become an enduring tradition for thousands of Hoosiers.
And right in the middle of it, a pair of Johnson County’s own will be ringing in the cheer onstage.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryPhoebe Mangas, a Center Grove area resident, and her fellow musicians in the Celebration Worship Band will be one of the main acts performing at this year’s Circle of Lights. Another southside resident, 11-year-old Adia Dant, also will sing a pair of songs to rev up the crowd.
The two were each picked out of 136 entrants as part of the Indiana’s Got Talent competition, conducted in October to pick entertainers from around the state.
The scale of the event to light up Monument Circle is massive. But Mangas and Dant aren’t nervous; they’ve decided instead to embrace playing the state’s biggest Christmas party.
“It’s a once-of-a-lifetime thing,” Mangas said. “We get to be there to welcome in Christmas. It’s going to be a big party.”
The Circle of Lights is organized by Downtown Indy Inc. as the kickoff to the holiday season in central Indiana. Decorations are strung down from the top of the Indiana Soldiers and Sailors Monument, with the “tree” being composed of 52 garland strands and 4,784 colored lights.
Accenting the decorations will be 26 larger-than-life toy soldiers and sailors, along with 26 peppermint sticks.
Organizers emphasize local performers throughout the celebration, and Johnson County residents have been creatively vital to the Circle of Lights for the past few years.
The Mount Pleasant Christian Church worship musicians, led by worship and arts pastor Brian Tabor, have served as the house band for the event since 2012.
Last year, Center Grove High School students Wilson Smith, Jeffrey Robison and Alex Milligan performed their blend of a cappella, acoustic guitar and piano for the performance. Trafalgar resident Ada Thompson sang in the event in 2012.
Three other acts round out the lineup this year for the Circle of Lights. Linzi Rodgers and Broderick Thompson are a duo of friends from Indiana University who performed together while in college.
Raymond Davis Jr. is a 12-year-old who won the grand prize for Indiana Black Expo’s Talent Contest. Hearts Ablaze is a 12-person clogging group from a Christian studio located in Hancock County.
Indianapolis native Josh Kaufman, the 2014 winner of The Voice, is the headliner.
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Circle of Lights
When: 6 to 8 p.m. Nov. 25
Where: Monument Circle, downtown Indianapolis
Schedule
6 p.m.: Live entertainment by Indiana groups begins
7 p.m.: Televised coverage of the lighting begins on WTHR Channel 13
7:55 p.m.: Lights go on
Information: downtownindy.org
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