The quarter-kilometre-long drive-thru holiday light display show at Hewitts Farm Market debuted this past weekend, and the response from the community was beyond overwhelming.
“We thought it would be huge if we could get 100 people though. We made swag bags for the first 100 people through, and we anticipated we would have those for three weeks,” explained Hewitts Farm Market co-owner Margie Hewitt.
The swag bags disappeared Saturday night in what felt like a matter of moments, as expectations for the festive event were exceeded by a landslide.
Hewitt says hundreds of people lined up to drive past and enjoy the 25 colourful and illuminated Christmas exhibit scenes. Cars were backed up for two kilometres on Town Line, Wainman Line, and Warminster Road.
“I’m pretty sure hundreds of cars left because we couldn’t handle the traffic,” Hewitt explained.
“We were not logistically ready for the cars, so the traffic was atrocious. We had no idea that many cars were going to come.”
Hewitts Farm Market has hosted special holiday-themed events in the past, but never before have they seen this kind of demand or interest from the community.
Wait times to get into the event exceeded two hours for some patrons on Saturday night, leaving some folks upset with their experience. Some patrons went to social media to express their displeasure.
“I tried to apologize to anyone who sent us messages on social media. Mistakes happen and we were overwhelmed. We could not have anticipated that many cars,” Hewitt said.
Hewitt says although there was some negative feedback from this past weekend’s event, they mostly received positive reviews from thankful community members.
“The community sent us messages saying they appreciate us and our hard work, which was uplifting and motivating,” Hewitt said.
“We had a lady message us and say they waited two hours, but she would give another two hours to spend another night with her family in the car looking at Christmas lights. People made great memories regardless of the wait and they had a lot of fun.”
Hewitt says the positive feedback from the community is the motivating factor behind the farm giving the holiday light display show another chance.
“We are very thankful for the support of the community, but now we need to work on logistics and try to change and adapt. We will be offering more dates and longer hours going forward,” she said.
Hewitts is also planning on hiring OPP officers to direct the flow of traffic during the event that will now take place on Thursdays through Sundays during the Christmas season, from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Admission is $10 per carload.
“We kind of wanted to share this with everyone, and that’s why we started it. There are people who we want to show it to still,” Hewitt said.
“We spent our time putting this together, so if we can logistically figure this out, we are going to keep this going.”
Hewitt says the farm will be putting in the necessary time and effort this week to make the event more enjoyable for community members going forward.
“The outpour from the community was felt, it was heard, and it was very much appreciated for our farm. We truly couldn’t believe it, which has inspired us to make this event better,” Hewitt said.