Burden’s popular Louisiana Lights returns with new displays and expanded entry times

Last year, Burden’s historic Windrush Gardens came alive with a new holiday lights display that drew thousands. Almost every night of Louisiana Lights sold out in 2024, and its dreamy backgrounds even drew scores of marriage proposals. This year, it’s back with more opportunities for memory making.

“We probably had one engagement every night last year,” says LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens Communications Coordinator Malorey Uzee. “And it’ll probably be the same this year.”

Visitors came from all 64 Louisiana parishes, 45 states and six countries, Uzee says.

And for good reason. More than 360,000 twinkling colored and white lights are tastefully strewn across a mile-and-a-half trail deep in the heart of Burden, the 440-acre property that was first developed as a series of gardens in the mid-19th century and was donated to LSU in the 1960s.

Situated in Burden’s showy Windrush Gardens, the festive displays create the feeling of different outdoor “rooms,” Uzee says. A crowd favorite is the section nicknamed Crape Myrtle Alley toward the end of the show, in which layers of lights form a tunnel through a grove of trees. Other displays, many set to music, highlight the gardens and their celebrated arrangements of live oaks, azaleas, camellias, water features and statuary.

Before the show opened, Burden created a holiday lights master plan with the help of national experts, Uzee says. Additional displays from the plan will be rolled out annually to keep things fresh. This year, that includes willow lights cascading vertically from live oaks, and glowing swings that provide charming photo ops for friends and families.

Themed nights add another layer of fun. Shop a holiday market on the grounds at Mistletoe & Moss on Dec. 3. Go back in time with A Rural Life Christmas on Dec. 7. And bring your pooch for Barks and Bright Night on Dec. 10.

The intergenerational experience is ADA-compliant and wheelchair accessible. Three different food and beverage stalls along the trail will sell kettle corn, hot dogs, po-boys, jambalaya and gumbo. A section of the route features firepits for marshmallow toasting and s’mores munching. Alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages will also be available, including regular and spiked hot chocolate.

Louisiana Lights was created in partnership with Visit Baton Rouge, which identified the period between the end of football season and the beginning of Carnival as an opportunity to grow tourism. More than 40,000 attended last year, Uzee says.

Entry is timed every 30 minutes, and tickets should be purchased in advance. After parking, enter on foot through the Rural Life Museum to begin the trail. Proceeds from the event support Windrush Gardens.

The popularity of the event last year prompted organizers to add an extra day each week, Uzee says. Louisiana Lights starts on Friday, Nov. 28, and runs Wednesdays through Sunday until December 30 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. For tickets, visit Louisiana Lights.