Festival of Lights opens Saturday, meet the magic man

Damon Mounce has spent the last three months thinking about lights. As maintenance supervisor at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, he makes sure that 2.5 million LED lights are in place by the time the Festival of Lights opens to the public, which will happen on Nov. 19 this year.

But on that day, when all the work is finally done, Mounce won't see those colorful lights quite the same way as most zoo visitors.

Those teal lights you'll see? They look off-white to him. And he won't quite be able to tell the purple from the blue or the green from the brown or the red from the orange.

"I have no idea what color this is," he said, holding up a strand of lights at his desk.

When he learned it was green, he replied, "I was going to say red."

So how does a guy who's colorblind make sure all of those colors get in the right place?

"Having a great team," Mounce said. "They know colors, I don't."

It certainly takes a team effort. A crew of 20 spends approximately 5,000 hours hanging lights. They start on Aug. 1, but the big push begins Nov. 1. That sounds like a long time – it's more than twice as long as the event itself – but consider this: Zoo staff estimates that the 100,000 strands of lights it hangs for the festival would, if placed in a straight line, stretch 237 miles. That's almost the distance from Cincinnati to Knoxville, Tennessee.

Mounce volunteered his department to take over the work, which was previously done mostly by seasonal employees, four years ago.

It's not like he didn't know what to expect. He's worked at the zoo since 1978 and still remembers the first Festival of Lights 34 years ago. (Someone decided they'd have dancing water, so they built a platform with a fountain for that purpose. Sounds simple enough, except kerosene heaters underneath it had to run going 24 hours a day to keep the water from freezing, Mounce said.)

There weren't as many lights back then. He guesses there were maybe 50,000.

Now that there are 50 times that many, things have to be a lot more organized. When crew members take down lights each year, they put them in plastic bins – labeled by color. So if his crew tells him they need a couple of crates of red, Mounce has no problem retrieving the right ones.

This year, he also has new glasses that help him see the colors better. "I can drive down the highway and I've never seen that color (green) on the highway signs before," he said. "It's exciting, but confusing."

It's not just stringing lights that he's thinking about when he's organizing who will do what each day as the crew decks out 60-some acres of the zoo's property. There are plenty of other logistics that his crew has to navigate: Bending metal into the shape of, say, a hippo (and then stringing it with lights). Paddling out onto the lake in a rowboat to put up displays there. Erecting a 35-foot tree at the Vine Street entrance (that alone took three days). Using hoops to create the tunnels that visitors will walk through.

And Mounce wants all of it done well. After all, the festival draws some 250,000 attendees at a time of year that might otherwise be slow for the zoo.

"I want people to come in and say we've got the best," he said. "If someone comes in and isn't happy, then we haven't done our job right."

You'd think that once all of the lights are up, the Mounce and his staff would get a break. But then you wouldn't be accounting for the vandals.

"I hate squirrels," Mounce said.

The critters chew up parts of the strands of lights – to the tune of $16,000 last year. That includes replacing damaged lights and the four or five hours per day that two staffers spent doing it.

Mounce and his staff have tried everything, right up to ghost pepper hot sauce, to deter them.

"We haven't found (anything) that will slow them down," he said.

So although his work won't be finished, Mounce said he'll enjoy seeing the finishing product later this month. After all, even without the colors, he can see the brightness.

And he'll bring his wife, daughter and son-in-law – who won't be seeing lights at home.

"I tell them 'you want to see the Christmas lights I put up? Come to the zoo.'"

If you go

What: PNC Festival of Lights

Where: Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, 3400 Vine St. 

When: 5-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 5-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday from Nov. 19 through Jan. 1 (closed Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day). New this year, Santa will be available for visits beginning at 4 p.m. daily (through Dec. 23).

Cost: Tickets are $16 online, $18 at the gate; $12 for children/seniors (ages 2-12 or 62-plus, $13 at the gate. (Half price nights are Nov. 21-23, 28-30 and Dec. 5-7. Pick up a coupon participating Skyline Chili locations.)

Info: 513-281-4700; cincinnatizoo.org/events/festival-of-lights