The General Manager at the BC Wildlife Park says plans are in motion as staff are preparing for the return of Wildlights later this year.

Glenn Grant is hoping for a grand return after COVID-19 restrictions forced the cancellation last year’s edition of Wildlights for the first time in 22 years.

“It generally brings in around 20,000 visitors so with missing that last year, coupled with a poor summer, we are really looking forward to hosting that event and it being successful,” he told NL News. “We have a lot of plans right now as we’re gearing up for Wildlights.

“We had some really great ideas just never had the opportunity to display them to our guests. So we’re looking forward to that.”

Grant though says there’s won’t be Boo in the Zoo event this Halloween, with staff instead focusing on making Wildlights as great as it can possibly be.

“For a three day event and the amount of work that goes into that, coupled with taking it all down right away to put Wildlights up, its probably not feasible this year, so we will not do a Halloween event, but we will be looking forward to everybody coming in for Wildlights,” he said.

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