Light-Up! Night is Saturday, November 21, 2026. The lights stay on through Monday, January 18, 2027. That is about as many nights as last season, moved one week later on both ends. This is also the first season under a rule meant to stop the dates from changing every spring.
At its March 23 meeting, the St. Augustine City Commission approved Resolution 2026-07 with modifications. It sets the "traditional dates" for the display as the Saturday before Thanksgiving through Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, observed the third Monday of January. You can read the details in the City's announcement. If you live downtown, in one of the neighborhoods around it, or take the Bridge of Lions to work, your December now ends on a set date you can figure out years ahead.
Three seasons, three different calendars
If the dates have felt like a moving target, they have been. The table puts the last three seasons side by side.
| Season | First night | Last night | Length | How the end date was set |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024–25 | Nov. 23, 2024 | Jan. 26, 2025 | 65 days | Ended on the last Sunday in January |
| 2025–26 | Nov. 15, 2025 | Jan. 11, 2026 | 58 days | Shortened by a 3–2 vote after the 2024–25 crowds |
| 2026–27 | Nov. 21, 2026 | Jan. 18, 2027 | 59 days | Fixed to MLK Day under Resolution 2026-07 |
The 2025–26 cut came after a 2024–25 season that the St. Augustine Record reported brought record crowds, gridlock, and $325,000 in cleanup costs the city hadn't planned for. City code gives commissioners a wide window. Seasonal light displays in the historic downtown can run anywhere from the first Saturday in November to the first Sunday in February. The new resolution picks one fixed span inside that window and keeps it there.
About that "two weeks shorter" headline
After the March vote, WOKV ran the story under the headline "Nights of Lights will be two weeks shorter this holiday season." It reported a 3–2 vote and said many residents support the change.
Measured against the 2024 rule, which ended the season on the last Sunday in January, that's roughly right. Measured against the season residents just lived through, it isn't. Last season ran 58 days and this one runs 59. What really changed is the timing. The first night moves from mid-November to the weekend before Thanksgiving, and the last night moves from the second Sunday in January to the MLK holiday Monday.
The other change is that it's permanent. A meeting recording shows commissioners noting they had "just set the dates in 2024" as permanent, ending the last Sunday in January, before changing them again a year later. Resolution 2026-07 is the city's third try at a lasting calendar in three years, and the first one tied to holidays instead of a count of Sundays.
Why the end date is tied to MLK weekend
City staff's original proposal went the other direction on both ends. It would have started two Saturdays before Thanksgiving and ended on the second Sunday in January. The commission changed both dates before approving it.
The meeting recording shows the reasoning. One commissioner said many businesses had "pleaded" for the season to run through Martin Luther King weekend after the dates changed the year before. That commissioner pointed to the three-day weekend as an extra push for hotel business and argued the season "needs to start later in November like it always has." The same commissioner said many people come to town to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and that seeing the city lit up then "would be a blessing."
So the formula is a compromise. Starting the weekend before Thanksgiving keeps the traditional opening. Ending on MLK Day gives merchants and lodging one last long weekend. The total still lands close to last year's shorter season. The Visitors and Convention Bureau's August announcement calls the Nov. 21 start the festival's "traditional start date" and says the lights stay on "through Monday, Jan. 18, 2027, Martin Luther King Jr. weekend."
One practical note. During the meeting, there was some loose talk about lights staying up until the Tuesday after. The City's published final date is Monday, January 18, 2027, and that's the date to plan around.
Light-Up! Night, hour by hour
The kickoff stays in the Plaza de la Constitución. The current event listing from Florida's Historic Coast gives this schedule for Saturday, November 21:
- 4 p.m. Showtime USA performs outside City Hall.
- 5:30 p.m. The All-Star Orchestra begins at the Plaza gazebo.
- 6:30 p.m. The lighting ceremony.
- Until 7:30 p.m. The concert continues after the lights come on.
After that, the Historic District is lit every evening with more than three million white lights, from the trees in the Plaza and the arches of the Lightner Museum to the Bridge of Lions. The festival is free and doesn't require a ticket.
The logistics residents care about most haven't been announced yet
The dates are settled, but the operations plan isn't. As of the bureau's August 3 release, the City will run a free park-and-ride shuttle again, but "designated parking areas, shuttle routes, and schedules will be posted closer to the date." Florida's Historic Coast's Nights of Lights page confirms a free Park & Ride Shuttle on Light-Up! Night and on "select days" through the season, with routes and schedules still to come. No 2026–27 plan for resident permit zones or street closures had been published as of early October.
Last season's plan is still useful as a reference, but it isn't this season's policy. For 2025–26, local reporting described these measures:
- Parking garage rates doubled to push drivers toward free lots and shuttles.
- Street parking in the downtown Plaza was removed for pedestrian safety.
- Illegal parking citations went up to $100.
- Shuttle service expanded to Fridays and Sundays, for 35 days in total.
- Resident-only permit areas were extended to Flagler Model Land Company, Abbott Tract, and Uptown.
Whether any of these return, and on which days, depends on the plan the City hasn't released. The 2025–26 operations notice came out on November 6, 2025, about a week before that season's opening night. If the City follows a similar timeline this year, early November is a reasonable time to start watching for it.
The free Nights of Lights app will likely be the fastest place to find the plan once it's out. For 2026, the bureau says the app is adding a visual display of parking availability, redesigned maps, and a new search for restaurants, attractions, events, and live music. More features are scheduled to launch in mid-October. The app also won a Bronze Flagler Award at VISIT FLORIDA's 2026 Flagler Awards. The bureau's own releases give different download totals: "nearly 80,000" in August and "nearly 90,000" in September. Either way, a lot of people use it.
A new table on the bayfront, if the timeline holds
The season may also bring something new to the water. River Restaurant Group, which runs River & Fort and SAINT in St. Augustine, is developing a restaurant at 135 Avenida Menendez. That's the former Santa Maria property on the Matanzas River, just south of the Bridge of Lions.
Longtime residents will remember the Santa Maria. It closed in 2015 after decades in business and was known for tables where diners could drop food to the fish in the river below. The White family, who run nearby O.C. White's Restaurant, bought the property that year, tore down the old building, and built a new one. Under the arrangement described to the Jax Daily Record, the hospitality group will own the restaurant and the family will keep the real estate. More details about the business will be announced later.
"We're excited about taking it over and absolutely hope to have it open by the middle of December," cofounder Bob Fleckenstein told the paper. That would put the opening around the middle of the season, with the Bridge of Lions lit up next door. Treat mid-December as a goal, not a confirmed date. The restaurant had no announced name as of October 1.
Ember & Iron, which has announced a Historic District location at 62 Spanish St., is targeting summer 2027, so it won't be open this season.
Marking the calendar
These are the dates confirmed so far for the 2026–27 season:
- Mid-October: Additional Nights of Lights app features are scheduled to launch.
- Saturday, November 21: Light-Up! Night. Entertainment starts at 4 p.m. and the lighting is at 6:30 p.m.
- Mid-December: The target opening for the new restaurant at 135 Avenida Menendez.
- Monday, January 18, 2027: The last night of the season, on MLK Day.
Under Resolution 2026-07, the same formula carries forward. The 2027–28 season will start the Saturday before Thanksgiving 2027 and end on MLK Day in January 2028.
If you'd like help working out how the season's parking and traffic plans might affect a particular street or block once the City publishes them, Ramona Damian is happy to talk it through with you. Let's Connect.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
