Overview ZooLights is Lincoln Park Zoo's holiday light festival and one of Chicago's best-loved winter traditions. Every night from late November into the new year, millions of LED lights and hundreds of displays cover the zoo's grounds in Lincoln Park, a short walk from the lakefront. Ticket sales help keep Chicago's free zoo open to everyone, every day of the year. On site Guests walk through a light tunnel, ride the Ferris wheel and the Endangered Species Carousel above the displays, catch the narrated light show on the South Lawn and watch ice carvers work on weekend nights. Santa takes photos, carolers stroll on Sundays, and fire pits and mulled wine keep people warm. Special nights include a sensory-friendly night, an adults-only party and a family countdown on New Year's Eve. Partners get 10x10 activation footprints on zoo grounds where staff can sample, hand out branded items and collect guest names and emails, plus signage, email and social placements and gate displays that run for a full year. Audience The crowd is local, multigenerational and loyal. Most guests live in Chicagoland, and on the zoo's own post-event survey three in four were return visitors who planned to come back. About half are between 25 and 49, the income mix runs across every bracket, and families with young kids share the paths with couples, friend groups and older visitors. Peak nights draw more than 20,000 people. Talent and Influencers The entertainment is seasonal and live: Santa, strolling carolers, professional ice sculptors, costumed holiday characters on Main Mall and the Chris White Trio's jazz tribute to Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown Christmas score. Local TV, parenting outlets and Chicago lifestyle creators cover the opening and the special nights each season. Track record ZooLights has run every winter since the mid-1990s and is Lincoln Park Zoo's biggest event. It raises more than $1.5 million a year to keep the zoo free, runs entirely on energy-saving LEDs powered by renewable wind energy, and offers free Monday nights and complimentary tickets to community partners. The zoo itself has been free and open to all since 1868. Brand presence Invesco QQQ and ComEd present ZooLights, and ComEd has backed the event since the first season. Grey Goose Vodka, Patrón Tequila and St-Germain present the adults-only night. Past partners include Gift of Hope, UChicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital, Pepsi, Louis Glunz Beer, 93.9 Lite FM and Alamo Drafthouse.