The holiday season kicks off Sunday in Williamsburg, with free fireworks, musical performances and torchlight.
This year’s Grand Illumination fireworks will start at 7 p.m. on Dec. 3, according to a release from Colonial Williamsburg. The displays will unfold simultaneously above the Capitol, the Magazine and the Governor’s Palace.
Afterward, the Colonial Williamsburg Fifes & Drums will march down Duke of Gloucester Street in a torchlit procession.
“The holidays are a welcome season when we gather with family, friends and our community to embrace light and hope,” Mitchell B. Reiss, president and CEO of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, said in the release. “As we do every December, we welcome our neighbors and guests from near and far to join us for a one-of-a-kind evening of warmth, music, and of course, traditional fireworks, at this year’s Grand Illumination.”
Events will get underway at 4 p.m., when a town crier ushers in the holidays from the Courthouse steps.
Musical acts will perform until 6:30 p.m.
There will be big-band era holiday songs on the Palace Green and The William & Mary Appalachian Music Ensemble on the Capitol’s north lawn.
A capella groups from William & Mary will be at Market Square.
The Jubilee Performers will bring traditional African-American songs to Duke of Gloucester Street between Colonial and Botetourt streets.
The Fifes & Drums will perform at Capitol Circle.
And the Gentlemen of the College, a William & Mary a capella group, will sing on Raleigh Tavern’s new porch.
Separately on Dec. 3, Colonial Williamsburg will be offering $15 tickets to the Governor’s Palace. The tickets will be available in limited quantities, only that day, and only on the Colonial Williamsburg Explorer mobile app.
Also, there will be an auction of “rare and one-of-a-kind period-inspired items” from 1-3 p.m. on the Market Square auction stage, according to the release.
Go to colonialwilliamsburg.com for more information.
