West End Brewery Christmas Lights

It was a family tradition from as long ago as I can remember… we’d all load into the car and head down to the Brewery to see the Christmas lights. We’d all ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ over the lights and hide behind Mum and Dad when Vulcan cracked his hammer inside the volcano.
Not much has changed with the Brewery lights display since all that time ago, apart from a couple of new features and a coat of paint on a couple of the displays.
Parking is provided for free and I have never had trouble getting a park. The entrance is easy to miss but it’s just next to the area where the food vans etc are parked.
It could be that I didn’t have the eyes of a child, but parts of this display are looking a bit worn out and old. The nursery rhyme/​fairytale characters look a bit tired and there was some sort of bear/​deer/​cow? in the trees that was chipped and looking generally rough. And that snowman will always creep me out!
That being said I still think this is a great place to head down to if you’re looking for some free Christmas cheer. The addition of a couple of (junk) food vans and a stall selling inexpensive light up toys is nice too and you can grab a coffee and a doughnut to enjoy while strolling along.

Is there anything better in the world, as a child, than this wonderful display?
As a kid, I never believed in Santa Claus. Well, I assume I did at one time. In fact, I seem to remember piecing it together, not with the usual: ‘How does Santa go to everyone’s house in one night? It’s impossible!’ crap, but when I had it explained to me that some characters in books and on television weren’t real, that’s when I stopped believing in Santa Clauses, Easter Bunnies, figures of religious worship…
So, of course, every year I looked forward to present and Christmas cheer (like a good and proper Ebenezer), but more than that I loved to visit the Christmas Lights at West End Brewery.
There’s nothing to say about it. In short, if you have kids and they like Christmas, take them here. They will love it, and carry it through until they’re old and cynical, like me.

Top marks for being so community minded the producers of a local beer maintain a large park area with a colourful display that celebrates childhood and Christmas. It attracts a great deal of people all through the year because it is beside a bike track and has off road parking, but at Christmas time it really goes off as they say. Hundreds of families come along and watch the pretty lights and play on rides that are set up for little children, up to the age of about seven or eight. It is mostly free until you start going on rides or purchasing fairy floss. But it can be enjoyed for free and you can thank the brewery for their contribution to a cheap and fantasy filled Christmas experience. One lovely touch is the various languages they use to spell out Merry Christmas.
I must add that my pictures are taken with a cheap phone camera and do not do it justice much… also in the evening when there are pretty lights and piped music the atmosphere is much more magical, especially for little kids. The other rather beautiful thing is that is is not strictly Christian, with a range of identifiable elements that you would find in other cultures. Even Dorothy and her Wizard of Oz friends make an appearance, so if you have no particular religion but still enjoy Christmas you will not feel overwhelmed by the… sanctity of it all.

SA Brewery has hosted the annual Christmas display alongside the river bank of the Torrens, for longer than I can remember.
I haven’t seen this display for years, but tonight took a trip down memory lane and revised my childhood.
Old classics such as the Volcano and the carousel have been restored the same as I remember. Although the volcano display wasn’t as loud as I recall to be. My favourite would have to be the giant Clipsal Safety Switch, which I’m not sure is meant to be a standing feature or not (I guess the lights wouldn’t be the same without it though.)
The food vans and carnival stalls are a good touch, and great distraction for the kids on the way back to the car.
As good as I remember.

Many a childhood memories have been had here, visiting the Brewery lights just before Xmas.
In the weeks leading up to the big day, this place gets packed! You pretty much have to crowd surf to the front to see the displays.
But as the years have gone on, the displays have improved, after a few times when the Torrens flooded and washed half of it away.
In a very iconic spot in Adelaide, right across the road from the Entertainment Centre, on the new tram line and only a kilometre or 2 from the city.
Make sure you bring the kids and the camera to get some snaps of the moving sleighs, erupting volcano and crackers which teach you to say Merry Christmas in a variety of languages,
There are also food vans and amusement rides on site which surely get a work out, especially the pancakes and hot donuts.