Find DAK Lights

DAK Lights is located inside Randolph Park in Pulaski County, VA right off of Interstate 81 (Exit 98). Check this link on Google Maps for driving directions. If you're using your own GPS routing, use 5100 Alexander Road, Dublin, VA, 24084 as your destination.

As you enter the park from Alexander Road, take the first right and follow the circle to the back of the park. You'll see plenty of signs to guide the way!

As you approach the back of the park, tune your car's radio to 103.9FM to listen to the show. There are plenty of parking spots available with excellent views of the entire light show. Please remember to turn off your headlights, and don't block the road or obstruct the view of others around you.

When you're ready to head out, turn right out of the parking lot and follow the circle back towards the front of the park.

The light show runs continuously throughout the night during each holiday season (full calendar below), weather permitting.

Plan Your Visit

DAK Lights operates every night during each holiday season (full calendar below), weather permitting. Be sure to check back here or on social media before you head out for any last-minute updates due to weather.

The light show runs continuously throughout the night, so feel free to come and go whenever you'd like! Check out the Now Playing section above for details of when each song will play throughout the evening.

About DAK Lights

DAK Lights is an annual Halloween, Christmas, New Year's, and Valentine's Day light and music show which premiered in November 2010. Every year, thousands of families from around the New River Valley come to visit and enjoy a roughly 25-35 minute light show set to music being broadcast over 103.9FM. Since its inception, the show has grown from about 3,000 incandescent (traditional) lights in white, red, and green to now over 50,000 LED lights capable of producing millions of color combinations.

DAK Lights has been featured in local media, including "The Burgs" in Blacksburg, VA, WSLS-TV in Roanoke, VA, and WFXR-TV in Roanoke, VA, has won the "Best Christmas Decoration" award based on reader votes from "The Southwest Times" in Pulaski, and was the runner-up for the "Light Up Your Hometown" contest by WDBJ-TV in Roanoke, VA.

In addition, DAK Lights has been featured by the Virginia Tourism Commission, and received 7th place in WSLS-TV's "Top 10 Best Places to See Christmas Lights" in Southwest Virginia. As popularity has grown, so have news stories about our display, including this article in the Pulaski County Patriot, and this feature article on NRV News' website. The popular NextThreeDays.com website also published details of DAK Lights to a massive audience in Southwest Virginia and beyond.

In 2018, DAK Lights moved to a new location at Randolph Park in Pulaski County, VA. This move provides better parking and viewing locations, and also room to grow for many years to come. Check out this story from WSLS-TV in Roanoke, VA (text story, video story) about our big relocation. We were also featured on WDBJ-TV in Roanoke, VA (text story, video story); their story shares the positive impact of the anonymous donation.

DAK Lights has been and always will be free, offering entertainment to everyone each year!

Our History

DAK Lights premiered in 2010, and we've made plenty of improvements over the years. Check out this timeline of our past:

Frequently Asked Questions

What is DAK Lights?
DAK Lights is an annual Halloween, Christmas, New Year's, and Valentine's Day light and music show in Pulaski County, VA. The lights are synchronized to music being broadcast over 103.9FM so you can enjoy on the radio from the comfort of your vehicle.

• Halloween show runs nightly from early October (start date varies) through October 31st beginning at 7:00pm
• Christmas show runs nightly starting in November (start date varies) through December 25th beginning at 5:30pm
• New Year's light show runs nightly starting December 26th through early-January (end date varies) beginning at 5:30pm
• Valentine's Day light show runs nightly beginning in late-January (start date varies) through February 14th beginning at 5:30pm.

How much does it cost to visit DAK Lights?
Our light shows have been and always will be free of charge!

When are the show times each night?
A complete listing of our show schedule is available above in the Plan Your Visit section; times vary with each season. The show repeats continuously throughout the evening, so you can start watching from any point and enjoy the show in whatever order you'd like! Check out our Now Playing section to see the estimated play times for each upcoming song while the show is running.

How do I hear the music?
To keep noise to a minimum, the light show audio is broadcast over FM radio that you can enjoy from the comfort of your car! Simply tune your radio to 103.9FM when you get close to the display.

When is the best time to visit?
DAK Lights is busiest on the weekends (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights), and every night during the week leading up to the holiday. Traffic is usually highest from 7-9pm, so plan your visit either before or after that period for the best view.

Can I take pictures or videos to share?
Of course! We'd love for you to tag our pages (Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc) as you share to help spread the word! Quick note: all the music we use during the show is covered under our license agreement which allow us to transmit over the radio. If you choose to share video clips online, the platform (example: YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok) may mute the audio to restrict the transmission of copyrighted material.

How many lights are there in the display?
Our elements vary from season to season and year to year, so our light total varies. With the switch to LED bulbs, we now have over 50,000 lights and add more every year!

I bet this creates a crazy power bill.
That's not really a question, but we'll entertain it! Since we switched to LED bulbs in 2016, our power bill is generally less than $100 for the entire season. Remember, not all the lights are on all the time... so we rarely reach peak power usage for more than 2-3 seconds.

How does this all work?
We use an open-source program called xLights that takes our vision and programming for a specific song and converts it into individual commands that get sent to each and every lightbulb at a rate of 40 times per second. Each light bulb contains a single red, a single green, and a single blue light that, when programmed together, can create over 16 million color combinations. It's mind-boggling to think how it all works, but understanding comes with many, many years of experience!

How do I build something like this on my house?
We started in 2010 by watching some online video tutorials and checking out some "Light Show Display" hardware. If you're interested in specifics, we'd recommend starting with the Beginner RGB Pixels playlist from Canispater Christmas' YouTube Channel. He dives into some details on controllers, hardware, lights, and software. The technology and options continuously improve each year, so you may notice differences from his videos recorded in 2018. Fair warning: this kind of light show is not easy or cheap to setup; it requires a lot of patience and months of dedication to build, test, program, and install.

Have a question we haven't answered?
Let us know and we'll try to get you an answer right away!