Photo courtesy Katie Hayes Luke

Event organizers anticipate keeping longer format for 2014

With Austin's popularity and population growing steadily, many local festivals such as the Trail of Lights are growing to accommodate the increased demand.

In 2012, the Trail of Lights lasted eight days, but in 2013 the holiday event was extended to 15 days. Mario Espinoza, board president of the Trail of Lights Foundation, said the main reason for the festival expansion was to make attendees more comfortable.

"With the expansion, folks were able to have a little more elbow room; we encouraged them to plan better for coming out," Espinoza said. "So while we still had numbers that exceeded last year's attendance, we firmly believe people had a better experience because of the level of the crowds we were getting every night, but just as importantly, they were planning how they were coming and when they were coming."

To help improve the flow of people and traffic during the extended event, Espinoza said festival officials established a transportation plan that included prepaid parking and dedicated Car2Go parking as well as creating destinations within the trail such as the live music stages and food trailers at which participants could meet and congregate.

"I have no doubt that expanding and the improvements we made to the flow of people made the experience better for everyone," Espinoza said.

The extended Trail of Lights was successful enough that organizers anticipate the same format in 2014.