{"id":67081,"date":"2017-10-14T13:30:45","date_gmt":"2017-10-14T18:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whisnews21.com\/?p=67081"},"modified":"2017-10-14T13:30:45","modified_gmt":"2017-10-14T18:30:45","slug":"67081","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/2017\/10\/14\/67081\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Won\u2019t Happen at Jellystone Park This Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Christmas Lights At Jellystone Park Won\u2019t Happen This Year<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Reason We\u2019re Being Singled Out, We Feel, Is Because We\u2019re Not Gaylord or Opry Mills<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) \u2013 The plug has been pulled on the popular annual holiday lights show at Jellystone Park. News 2 has confirmed the annual Dancing Lights of Christmas attraction in Donelson will not open this year. Owner Mike Scalf and Metro Councilman Jeff Syracuse both say they weren\u2019t able to work things out in order to operate. It would\u2019ve been the eighth year for the popular drive-through musical lights shows.<\/p>\n

News 2 spoke with both men about the situation Tuesday night.<\/strong>Last year, organizers said 45,000 vehicles passed through the exhibit, congesting the already-congested area of Opryland and Opry Mills mill along Briley Parkway and Music Valley Drive.\u00a0Jellystone Park also sits near a Pennington Bend neighborhood of over 1,000 homes. That\u2019s one of the reasons the city and organizers came to this year\u2019s decision to pull a plug on the event, as well as the inability to agree on a traffic plan, lease agreement, and proper permits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason we\u2019re being singled out, we feel, is because we\u2019re not Gaylord or Opry Mills. We\u2019re a small veteran-owned little family Christmas light show,\u201d owner Scalf told News 2.\u00a0\u201cWe intend to pursue this. We\u2019re going to ask our show followers to reach out to Metro Council Planning and Zoning and the mayor\u2019s office and see if this injustice can be righted,\u201d he continued.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>However, Councilman Syracuse says it\u2019s a matter of how big the lights show became. \u201cIn a way, they are a victim of their own success, and I congratulate them on that success, but they\u2019ve really outgrown the capacity of that site to accommodate the event, and they\u2019ve known about this for months,\u201d he said. In a press release sent Wednesday, Scalf and co-owner Andy Eaton urged\u00a0supporters to contact both Metro Council Planning and Zoning and the Mayor\u2019s Office to encourage city officials to keep the attraction open for the season.<\/p>\n

Scalf said in the release,\u00a0\u201cWe were excited and set for the season \u2013 having hired employees, rented equipment and placed advertising. We were extremely disappointed to hear about Councilman Syracuse\u2019s decision to shut us down. Contrary to what has been reported, we were not aware of his decision until we were contacted by a reporter Tuesday night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scalf went on to say, \u201cAfter numerous attempts to work with the city, we can\u2019t help but feel we\u2019re being singled out as the little guy. As I\u2019ve said, we are a small, family-owned operation. We\u2019re no Gaylord. Trying to shut us down right before the holidays is unfair and unjust. We are trying to stay positive and rally our supporters, but the lack of notice on this decision has put us in a hard spot.\u201dDancing Lights of Christmas says its been trying to work with city officials to alleviate the traffic woes, as well as zoning and leasing concerns, saying although the event \u201cfits this zoning description, Scalf and his attorney communicated with city officials out of due diligence and were told repeatedly that they did not need a special permit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scalf is also urging supporters to attend a public meeting Wednesday night at Troubadour Theater, where Councilman Syracuse will\u00a0 be answering questions at a holiday traffic meeting. Jellystone also\u00a0took to Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0asking for the public\u2019s help in getting the show back. Their statement said, in full:<\/p>\n

\"\"Regarding the Christmas light show:\u00a0First and foremost, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. It is deeply appreciated. WE NEED YOUR HELP! For the past seven years, we have complied 100% with the city in every capacity. We are not required to obtain a permit, there are NO lease issues, and have always followed Metro police department\u2019s traffic plan and suggestions at our own expense. We would like to ask all of our fans to reach out to Councilman Jeff Syracuse 615-862-6780 Jeff.Syracuse@nashville.gov, Douglas Sloan at Planning and Zoning 615-862-7150 Doug.Sloan@nashville.gov, and Mayor Megan Berry \u2018s office 615-862-6000 to help us right this wrong, as we never agreed to \u201cpull the plug\u201d on the light show. We ask you to please be respectful with your comments but please let the city know your thoughts. LIKE OUR FACEBOOK PAGE FOR UPDATES AND ANY NEW INFORMATION ABOUT THE FUTURE OF OUR SHOW.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

News 2 reached out to the mayor\u2019s office for comment. Spokesman Sean Braisted said they\u2019ve received some feedback so far since yesterday\u2019s story made headlines. \u201cThere seems to be passion on both sides; both the residents impacted by the traffic and the visitors who have enjoyed the lights show in previous years. Hopefully concerned citizens will have the opportunity to hear from Councilman Syracuse and Metro agencies tonight at the community meeting to address issues like this,\u201d Braisted continued.<\/p>\n

In addition,\u00a0a petition was created with a video message<\/a>\u00a0from the two Nashville residents behind the \u201cThat\u2019s Classic\u201d film production team. And we also learned Wednesday talks are underway to possibly move the popular Jellystone light display to the Wilson County Ag Center in Lebanon. Larry Tomlinson, General Manager, told News 2, \u201cThey are still negotiating. It\u2019s a real possibility it could be moved to the Ag Center in Lebanon. We will know more tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

[youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CdxGAUc6seI?rel=0&w=700&h=385]<\/p>\n

–\u00a0WKRN web staff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christmas Lights At Jellystone Park Won\u2019t Happen This Year Reason We\u2019re Being Singled Out, We Feel, Is Because We\u2019re Not Gaylord or Opry Mills NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) \u2013 The plug has been pulled on the popular annual holiday lights show at Jellystone Park. News 2 has confirmed the annual Dancing Lights of Christmas attraction in Donelson will not open this year. Owner Mike Scalf and Metro Councilman Jeff Syracuse both say they weren\u2019t able to work things out in order to operate. It would\u2019ve been the eighth year for the<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67081"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}