Riverside’s famous Halloween light show is back for its eighth year, and it’s better than ever.
The show is a light display on the face of a suburban home. This year's event involves 400,000 LED lights that dance and flash for the duration of seven songs blasted over loudspeakers. At least one of the tunes is new; it's the Rocky Horror Picture Show classic, "Time Warp." Words to the song pop up karaoke-style via two flat screens on either side of the house, facilitating the sing-along element of late-night Rocky Horror movie screenings. (Hint, hint.)
It's so popular there are now multiple shows a night, four nights a week—and it still packs them in, reports the Press-Enterprise.
As popular as the free show is, it’s been unpopular with neighbors of the man who started it all, professional lighting designer Kevin Judd. His run-ins with the local neighborhood’s homeowners association resulted in him relocating the show to a friend’s nearby home in 2014, says the PE.
The new spot is located across the street from a park, giving viewers an ideal spot for taking in the half-hour-long shows.
Another bonus of the new spot: the house is run on solar power. That, combined with the fact that the show currently uses only LED lights, have kept the costs low. How low? Judd tells Curbed that last year, the electricity bill for the show was about $1.50. Even before moving to the new location with solar power, Judd says that his show only added about $30 to his electric bill. (At that time, though, his show was only mostly LED lights, not entirely LED lights, so he says it's not a totally fair comparison.)
Last year, in response to neighbor complaints, the showrunners worked with city officials to legitimize the show, securing permits and coordinating with the fire department (there are now pyrotechnics involved in the experience).
This year, the house is carrying on that tradition at its new location, with permits to close the streets and extra receptacles for trash.
Shows occur Thursday through Sunday until Halloween, at 7 p.m., 7:45 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.. Can’t make it out? There are plenty of videos of past shows available online, at Judd’s Youtube channel.
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