‘A magical experience’: Annual fundraising event lights up park

Maeve Bauer, Contributing Writer

Maymont Park lit up on Oct. 16, marking the reopening of Maymont’s most popular event, Garden Glow. 

Garden Glow will be open until Nov. 10 and features a plethora of activities, installations and food trucks, which rotate each day, according to Maymont’s website. Information about the artists of the installations can be accessed on Maymont’s website and through QR codes at the event.

The event will offer value nights from Tuesday to Thursday in the second and third weeks and free for members on Tuesday, according to Maymont’s website. Tickets are $20 for adults, whereas value nights tickets are $18 for adults. 

Melissa Abernathy, manager of communications at Maymont, said funds from this event help keep Maymont free during the day and contribute to their historic conservation efforts. 

“I think people know the cost of the ticket goes to support Maymont, we’re mostly staffed with volunteers,” Abernathy said. “We need volunteers to really pull it off.”

Garden Glow is still looking for volunteers, according to Abernathy. Information about volunteering can be found on this website. 

Abernathy loves the landscape of Maymont and feels that Garden Glow illuminates its beauty in a new way, she said. 

The Japanese Garden is the heart of the exhibition, Abernathy said.

“When you get down to the Japanese Garden you kind of feel like you’re in a church almost,” Abernathy said. “The trees arch overhead, everything reflects in the pond below, you kind of feel like you are surrounded.”

The Japanese Garden has been on the property since the original owners, James and Sallie Dooley, lived in the mansion, Abernathy said. 

“It was originally landscaped by a visiting Japanese Garden Master, Yonehaci Muto — he has designed other Japanese gardens for other Gilded Age landowners,” Abernathy said. 

Yonehachi Muto originally built the area near the waterfall, but in 1998 it was expanded with a grant gifted to the Maymont Foundation, according to Abernathy.

Garden Glow has been growing within the community, with a count of 60,000 people last year, and 48,000 in 2022, according to Abernathy.

“A lot of people come back, it’s really such a magical experience,” Abernathy said.

Visitors want to bring new friends or family members because Garden Glow always has something new, according to Abernathy.

Garden Glow’s new features this year are the glow swings, the light sculptures guests will see as they walk in and a variety of international art installations, according to Amber Walczuk, director of special events and event sales at Maymont.

“We contracted a new creative group out of the U.K., Culture Creative, they brought in international artwork pieces, and nature-inspired light installations — three of them — that are larger than life and absolutely spectacular — like nothing we’ve ever had before,” Walczuk said.

Walczuk said she hopes guests will take away a sense of awe and wonder.

“I hope that people will leave feeling like they got to step outside of their everyday lives and see something extraordinary,” Walczuk said. 

Walczuk said she sees many different groups of people visiting the event — everything from first dates to multigenerational outings and marriage proposals that happen every year. 

Walczuk said they have already started planning for next year. 

“We start design in earnest in the spring. We have all our contracts and stuff in place in the spring, the actual installation begins in September and takes about four weeks. The preparations are pretty much year-round,” Walczuk said.

Garden Glow is put together with a mixture of Maymont’s senior planning team, the horticulture team, facility care, different contracted companies, the guest engagement team, part-time workers and volunteers, according to Walczuk.

Leira Colon, a student at VCU and volunteer for the event, shared how she got involved through VCU’s professional homeland security and emergency management fraternity Eta Lambda Sigma. 

“We volunteer in and around Richmond. We’re just trying to help in any way we can,” Colon said.

Colon said that volunteering at Garden Glow entails keeping everyone safe and making sure they have a good time. 

Tickets are available to be purchased on Maymont’s website.