CINCINNATI — Every year around this time, the Purple People Bridge comes alive with more than 1,000 glowing holiday lights and Christmas music.

 

What You Need To Know

  • Southbank Partners and Cold Iron Event Rentals have partnered again for the Purple People Bridge light show

  • There are over a thousand lights and Christmas music

  • Funding for the lights this year was a challenge because of COVID-19

  • But Southbank was able to fundraise the money in time to bring the holiday spirit alive


“It takes about a week on-site, and about a week to prep all of the lights before we get to the bridge. About a week on-site with two men and a lift,” said Marc Wertheim, Cold Iron Event Rentals president and CEO.

For the past four years, Wertheim and his team have been putting together this light show for the community. Every year, there’s also something new to see. This year, there’s the wish tree at the front of the bridge.

“It’s a 25-foot-tall, purple-illuminated Christmas tree, at which the charity the wish tree has ornaments that folks can come, choose an ornament and donate to a charity,” said Wertheim.

Cold Iron Event Rentals has partnered with the Southbank Partners every year to make this happen. And it almost didn’t happen this year because there wasn’t enough funding due to COVID-19. 

“Jack and his board worked really hard to raise the funds led by the North American properties who owns Newport on the levee, and they were able to raise the funds to light the bridge this year,” he said.

Southbank Partners President Jack Moreland says it was important for the show to go on this year because of the challenging year we've all had due to the pandemic.

“Because of that, we need something to brighten our spirits, so to speak, and so we view this as our little contribution to brightening the spirits of all of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky,” said Moreland.

And brightening the spirits is something that Wertheim says he enjoys doing every year. 

“It's really exciting to us in our team to see how the community really appreciates it. They're starting to look forward to it every December, so that's exciting for us,” said Wertheim.

You can check out the lights from now until Jan. 15.