‘Boo at the Zoo’ – a Halloween tradition at the BC Wildlife Park in Kamloops has come to an end.

General Manager Glenn Grant told NL News they will not bring the event – which was on hiatus due to COVID-19 for the past two years – back, citing a low attendance rate and high costs.

“About a month’s worth of labour putting all the displays up and the event only runs for three days,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of time to get a lot of attendance or a lot of revenue and then its such a short turnaround between taking the Halloween stuff down and getting Wildlights ready to open up in the first week of December.”

“You put it all together and it just wasn’t feasible to continue forcing the issue, so to speak, to make Boo at the Zoo happen. I know it is disappointing for some. We’re sorry about that.”

The 2020 edition of Wildlights was also cancelled by COVID-19, though it made its return last winter. Grant does say to expect details on the 25th edition of Wildlights to be available soon.

“We noticed that the last couple of years that one of the new features we started, that long tunnel of lights down the east side of the park, was very popular,” he said. “That takes a lot of time to put together and we’re always struggling to try and meet deadlines.”

“This year, there will be over a million lights for Wildlights, and there will be a few new features for people to enjoy, a few new rope light scenes that will be put up.”

Grant also says the Wildlife Park will be expanding its infrastructure by building an outdoor classroom and aquatic animal rehabilitation pens.

“We got a grant from the federal government for community revitalization,” he added.

“We’re building a large post and beam structure in the middle of the park on the great lawn which should be finished by the end of November, so we want to invest a bit of time to decorate that.”

According to BC Wildlife Park estimates, Wildlights brings in between $250,000 to $300,000 in revenue each year.