CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Charleston Dirty Birds’ second annual Light the Night event broke a record of over 11,000 visitors on Saturday night.
The Salango Law Dirty Birds Light the Night broke a record of approximately 11,263 visitors.
This well surpassed the just over 8,000 people the holiday light event at Charleston’s GoMart Ballpark brought in last year during its inaugural year, as well as breaking the all-time attendance record in the 20-year history of the ballpark itself.
Dirty Birds Media Relations Manager Jill Gearin said this record shows amazing growth.
Jill Gearin
“It’s an exciting feel to break a record like this, I mean a 20-year record is not an easy thing to break and we knew that Light the Night was going to be great last year and we had some records broken last year, but for this one to be the big record of over 11,000 people in this ballpark is really exciting for us,” said Gearin.
A total of 8,614 visitors came out to Light the Night for its first year in 2023 and continued to break the ballpark’s attendance record throughout the weekends in December.
However, Gearin said they owe the over 2,500 more visitors this year to the events’ expansion of 500,000 more lights, as well as more attractions and promotions.
“I think just the fact that our ownership and our team wants to keep expanding, the fact that our owner has this amazing idea of two million lights and then the next year we sit here and think how can we make this bigger and better for our community,” she said.
This year, the Dirty Birds team added the carousel, the Roundup, some other carnival rides and inflatables, and extended the hours for the ice-skating rink as well.
Gearin said this event means a lot to the community, who are the reason why Light the Night was created to begin with.
“The Dirty Birds is not just a baseball team here at GoMart Ballpark, we are an event space for this community and that’s what we try to do 365 days a year, and having an event like this to expand the holiday spirit in Charleston is extremely important to our crew,” said Gearin.
“This achievement is a testament to the hard work, creativity, and passion of our entire team, as well as the incredible support from our community,” said Dirty Birds Owner and CEO Andy Shea. “It’s inspiring to see how Light the Night continues to resonate with people from all over the state. We look forward to building on this success and delivering even more memorable experiences in the future.”
Light the Night continues to be open every night through January 1 not including Christmas Night. You can visit the event’s website for more information and to buy tickets.