As Canada’s foremost illumination festival, the CAA Winter Festival of Lights in Niagara Falls attracts visitors from across Ontario, Canada, North America and beyond.

It began in 1983 when the Niagara Falls, Canada Visitor and Convention Bureau (now Niagara Falls Tourism), the City of Niagara Falls, The Niagara Parks Commission and numerous local businesses to band together to create a parallel event.  From humble beginnings, the CAA Winter Festival of Lights continues to enchant and delight its many wintertime visitors.  It has grown from attracting approximately 250,000 visitors and 35 motor coaches to over 1 million visitors and nearly 1,000 motor coaches.

In 1992, the CAA Winter Festival of Lights entered into an agreement with Disney Canada Inc. to create the Enchantment of Disney® displays, which are located in Queen Victoria Park at the base of Murray Hill.  These have quickly become the most recognized of all the Festival’s displays.

The Festival’s impact on the wintertime tourism season has resulted in a similar, positive impact upon the local economy.  A recent economic study conducted by Enigma Research Corp. found that the Festival attracts more than 1.3 million visitors annually with an economic impact of more than $57 million.  With the level of increased business activity in what years ago used to be the Niagara Falls tourism industry’s 'off season', the CAA Winter Festival of Lights has directly contributed to a longer and busier tourism season and the extension of employment for many local residents.

Today, the Festival operates as a year-round not-for-corporation with a board of directors that still reflects the unfaltering support of its founding partners, with seats reserved for representatives of the Niagara Parks Commission, the City of Niagara Falls and Niagara Falls Tourism.  And the efforts and dedication of Festival staff, Board members and its hundreds of volunteers have earned the CAA Winter Festival of Lights worldwide recognition.

The TD RINK at the Brink, which was launched in 2009, offers outdoor, open-air, ice skating in an iconic setting located just steps away from the Horseshoe Falls.  With its magnificent view you can enjoy the breathtaking experience of the mighty cataracts from a new perspective!

Finally, in 2010 – 27 years after the Festival was founded and 18 years after its historic agreement with Disney – the Festival has entered into another historic partnership, this time with CAA Niagara.  As such, the Festival is now known as the CAA Winter Festival of Lights.