A colorful, festive evening at Redmond Lights

The annual winter festival, in its 18th year, began at City Hall campus.

There were four temporary light art installations along the luminary trail — which began at City Hall, ran along the Redmond Central Connector (RCC) and ended at Redmond Town Center (RTC): floating lights in the shape of holiday lights that illuminated the Sammamish River; twirling lights that cast shadows in a series of wooden light boxes; Sassy the Sasquatch, a friendly giant who glowed with goodwill toward all; an interactive “GlowWorm,” which featured a large, color-changing inflatable, twisting its way through the trail.

Redmond Lights featured performances at City Hall as well as along the trail. Performers included Japanese Taiko drummers, fire twirlers, Keith Highlanders Pipe Band, Rhythms of India dance group and International Lion Dance Team.

In addition to the live music at RTC, there were photos with Santa, a horse carousel, a Polar Express train people can ride around the town center property, food samples from onsite restaurants, a live ice carver and arts and crafts.

And for the third year in a row, RTC has a synthetic ice skating rink. The skating rink — along with the town center’s other winter season activities — opened for use on Nov. 25, the day after Thanksgiving, and will stay open through Jan. 1, 2017.

New to the town center activities this year was a trampoline by Springfree Trampoline.

The Redmond Lights Holiday Market at the Redmond Senior Center featured gifts by local artists.

A colorful, festive evening at Redmond Lights