ZooLights Express will return Saturday night for its tour through Ward 4.

/ Courtesy of Dorie Nolt

Dorie Nolt consulted the ZooLights Express routes and schedules, and picked a spot where the festively decorated 24-foot truck would pass close to her home in Bloomingdale.

“I thought, oh, this is going to be great,” said Nolt. She’s a longtime member of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, and has fond memories of ZooLights from years past — when hundreds of thousands of colorful LEDs make the zoo sparkle with holiday cheer. “In the past, ZooLights has been this lovely, magical experience,” she recalled.

This year, Nolt and her husband staked out a place on the sidewalk of Georgia Ave. NW with their 3-year-old son. They waited in the dim glow of a streetlight across the street from McDonald’s as traffic droned by.

And they waited.

Finally, after about an hour, they spotted the truck, turning north off of Barry Place NW.

“Alright buddy, here it comes!” Nolt told her son. In less than 20 seconds, the flatbed truck covered with lights in the shapes of animals had sped past. “Maybe the driver was behind schedule and was sort of trying to make up time. But he very much just like stepped on the gas and kept going.”

Nolt said there was another family there that had also been waiting for ZooLights Express. “We just all burst into laughter because it was like, ‘Really? That was it?'”

A number of people had similar experiences and reactions online. It was the first weekend of four planned ZooLights Express routes through the city. For some, the 2020 version of ZooLights seemed to epitomize just what sort of year it’s been.

https://twitter.com/ChelseaCirruzzo/status/1332854185335943174?s=20

One commenter, José Vicar, wrote on Nextdoor, the hyperlocal social network, that the display was “somewhat underwhelming.” Vicar summed it up: “One panda costume, 1 driver, 1 truck with lights, music playing.” Still, he advised, “Go anyway but don’t expect a mardi gras parade.”

Another commenter, Judy Fisher, replied, “Underwhelmed is an understatement.”

Others found a moment or two (but certainly not more than 30 seconds) of joy in the truck’s brief passage. Duke Kwon posted a video of ZooLights Express making its way up 11th St. NW, in Columbia Heights.

Dorie Nolt’s 3-year-old wasn’t too disappointed. “I remember he said, ‘Oh, wow,’ and then he wanted to throw acorns,” Nolt said. The child, who, like children the world over, has had to learn to entertain himself during the pandemic, spent the hour waiting for ZooLights Express throwing acorns into a bush. He didn’t want to be interrupted.

Nolt’s husband, John Nolt, was amused by the situation. He created a short video highlighting the expectation vs. reality. “AN EPIC MOBILE EXTRAVAGANZA,” the video touts, before showing a sped-up, 2-second version of the truck whizzing by.

The zoo has been closed to the public for much of the pandemic, though it was open with limited capacity from late July through Nov. 23. As COVID-19 infection rates spiked in the region, the zoo shut down indefinitely, along with all Smithsonian museums.

A zoo spokesperson said zoo administrators heard the feedback about ZooLights Express and planned to make changes for the upcoming weekends, but said slowing the truck down wasn’t an option.

“The 24-ft. truck moves with the flow of traffic and is not able to stop or slow down along the way,” wrote Annalisa Meyer, in an email to DCist/WAMU. Meyer clarified that the truck would make “continuous loops on the published route in each ward,” and said organizers would live-tweet the truck’s location at specific points along each route.

ZooLights Express continues through December, visiting each of the District’s eight wards.

This story was updated to add comment from a zoo spokesperson.

Filed Under: coronavirus, smithsonian national zoo, zoo lights,