More Star Trek holiday fun. Every year the city of East Peoria, Illinois puts on a festival of lights for the holiday seasons and one of the regular floats is of the USS Enterprise. Check out images and video of the Starship Enterprise in lights below.
Enterprise in Lights
This USS Enterprise float was part of the 2011 East Peoria Festival of Lights. It is 57 feet long, 22 feet wide and 14 feet tall with 52,000 lights. After running in the parade a few weeks ago the floats all remain on display until the end of December.
(City of East Peoria)
(Reddit)
Here are some images of the same float from past years:
(Az Jade)
(Mike Oliveri)
Promo video including the Enterprise (at 1:36)
i wish i had a miniature lantern version of this and hang it in front of my house. :) happy holidays!
sweetness + light
O_O That’s awesome! Can’t imagine how much work that must have taken, looks great.
Nice rendering of our favorite starship!
They look wonderful, beautiful.
Where is East Peoria?
illinois
Just looking at a twitter comment @boborci – about a cavity search list? I’m not sure I necessarily want to know just is meant by a “cavity search list” and why our Bob could get on such a list…Yikes?
This is beautiful!
RE: Cavity Search
Bob was disparaging the TSA (the people at US airports who scan you for bombs, guns and small bottles of liquid)…I was just ribbing him.
5. East Peoria is just about as ‘middle America’ as one can get, but just east of it.
“Peoria” is always considered the ‘middle America’ stereotype. We say “But, how will it play in Peoria?” when a mass-market product is being questioned for launch.
By the way,
Merry Christmas, and Happy Hols to everyone who runs, or comes and goes, here at Trekmovie.Com.
Anthony, thanks for sticking with it, and us.
We ‘old-timers’ truly appreciate your sticktuitiveness and tenacity in what is not the easiest of franchises to report on. On a constant basis, no less.
May we all have real Turkeys instead of synthetic meatloaf in our food processors for the holidays. It’s a metaphor, vegetarians!
AJ
Looks like the Enterprise is sponsored by Pepsi this year!
@5 “Where is East Peoria?”
Go to West Peoria, then head East, and you will end up right there.
@10 “Bob was disparaging the TSA (the people at US airports who scan you for bombs, guns and small bottles of liquid)”
That is disappointing!
Well, from me and my family, I would like to send a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays out to all the staff and their families at the TSA who have done a phenomenal job in recent years in protecting our airways! I travel a lot on business, and 95% or more of the TSA personnel I interact with are professional and good people. And to all of you — please ignore the cynics and unappreciative Hollywood types.
Friggin’ Wow! :)
Hey everyone, I am from the Peoria, IL area. They have had this float since I was a kid. Its stood the test of time for sure. Gotta love it! I think they updated it with LED Lights!
The U.S.S Enterprise float was brought to us by Pepsi.
Hey Red Dead Ryan,
The first photo with the Pepsi logo is more recent. The second photo is how it looked when I was growing up. They have had to redo ALL of the lights on this thing more then once! Its been around since at least the early 90s. Maybe late 80s if I remember right. The first time I saw it had to of been 1990!
I think Caterpillar(Tractor Company in Peoria and East Peoria, IL) sponsored it at one point. Obviously Pepsi sponsors it now. Which is just silly!
#18.
Thanks for the info! Must have been very cool to see it drive by when you were a kid! And it looks like a well made float, and not some cheap, throw-it-together-and-hope-it-looks-like-what-its-intended-to-be float.
By the way, I prefer Coke. Though I have no issues with people who like Pepsi better. Afterall, nobody’s perfect. :-)
I too prefer Coca-Cola, but Pepsi is “Generation Next” or umm…The Next Generation.
Wow, I just watched the clip and the Enterprise quite took my breath away. All of them are beautiful though. Fantastic.
Very cool! Thanks for posting this TrekMovie! Makes me wanna go to see the lights… :D
Head towards the lights!
Love it!
It’s dec 25 here in the Land of the Long White Cloud.
Have a great day My gorgeous Trekkies/Trekkers.
Cue the turkey!
Barbecued!
Yep, it sure is December 25 here now, 8.34am.
It is chicken for us, I believe. Going to my sister down country later on. She has mentioned something about chicken and pavlova (homemade)…
See you later. Have a good one!
#21
Happy Christmas, Buzz! Hope all is well in merry old England.
Say hey to Bob Cratchit for me. ;)
That´s how Enterprise should look like…
I went when I was younger and it’s more incredible in person. Amazing what they do each year. I lived in central il for all my life. About 40 min from peoria. Trust me in the midwest star trek is alive and well.
Season’s Greeting’s to you too, Vults. I hope you have a happy and peaceful time.
I treated myself to an early present yesterday. An MG TF. I’ve tried to post a link to the car but it won’t seem to work. Anyway, it really is in lovely condition and it only cost me £1700. It is just what I was looking for. Cheap enough but still in nice shape and more than good enough for a bit of weekend fun. I should probably have bought a Toyota MR2 but they cost twice as much as a comparable MG.
http://www.reddotcars.co.uk
Nice, Buzz. I’ve never had the pleasure of driving a MG, but I sure like the looks of them. Hope she lasts you a long time.
As long as it gets me through the summer that will be good enough, and then we’ll see.
I would have liked a Boxster but it would have been more money than I really wanted to spend.
I had a drive in a BMW Z4 3.0 the other day- wow! What a terrific bit of kit and did it ever shift! But again, serious money.
I just took my family to see the Festival of Lights last night for Christmas Eve. AND of course, I pointed out my favorite display, the Enterprise! It’s approximately 2 car lengths long! It’s been around since the early years of the Festival (the event is on it’s 27th year at this point), and I must say, the designers were amazingly accurate to the proportions and specs of the filming model. It’s always a highlight for me, and I hope you can see it in person. Peoria is in Central Illinois so if you’re in the area check it out. (And no, I don’t work for the Festival!) Merry Christmas!
I used to live in Peoria.. saw this many years ago as a kid. loved it then and still do
@18 If Pepsi sponsored it, then that generally means Pepsi put MONEY into it to restore/fix/update/whatever it. They might as well get some credit for it.
The Pepsi logo ruins the whole display
I’m thrilled that Pepsi was willing to put money into it because the whole project needed a massive overhaul, and upgrade with new lights. Somebody in the Pepsi PR office thought Star Trek was a great way to get attention and opened up the purse strings to pay for the supplies and their logo. Then, all the volunteers could pour countless hours of time into fixing the display because they had the repair parts to do so. SO, THANK YOU to the volunteers and to the sponsors!