INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Festive holiday music played Wednesday as crews continued to set up for the Circle of Lights at Monument Circle.

The 60th annual lighting of what’s been called “the world’s largest Christmas tree” will be Friday night on the Soldiers & Sailors Monument.

Andrew L. Ward and his family of five walked around the Circle as he remembered what the event represented when he grew up: “the warmth of the holiday season.”

He’s looking forward to experiencing that same warmth this year: “Help mark the passage of time, changing of the seasons and the spirit.”

Part of that spirit is going to come from Christ Church Cathedral on Monument Circle. Its Latino choir, Coro Latinoamericano, will perform Friday, and members of their choir school will also be performing.

“We love it when the Circle’s full of vitality and when there are people here, just makes it so much more of a festive occasion, so we’re looking forward to having a lot of people downtown,” said Mariann Scott with the Christ Church Cathedral.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department on Wednesday told News 8 that officers are ready to keep people safe at the lighting of the monument.

“We’re looking forward to another fun night,” said IMPD Sgt. Genae Cook, a department spokeswoman.

IMPD expects attendance to reach levels experienced before the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020. Cook said that IMPD is “going to have extra officers downtown.

“We’re going to have extra officers in the event, monitoring any type of threat any type of violence that may come in.”

IMPD says anyone coming to the event should plan on where they are going to park because street parking will be limited in the immediate vicinity of Monument Circle.

The event starts at 6:30 p.m. Friday, with the lighting of the monument at 8 p.m. Friday.

We were blown away by these acro-yoga moves, and you can see them for yourself at the 8^th annual Monumental Yoga event. Suzy Bindley of Indy Yoga Movement joined us today to talk about the upcoming event, along with Kimberly Hart and Ron Hopkins who demonstrated acro yoga. Here’s more from Bindley:

New and advanced yogis alike are invited to join us on their mats for the 8th annual Monumental Yoga event. It returns to Monument Circle on Sunday, September 19th.

The core of Indy Yoga Movement’s (IYM) mission is to offer avenues toward health and wellness for our community. Throughout the school year, we do this by bringing yoga & mindfulness to Indianapolis area youth.

Every summer, IYM proudly hosts the single largest yoga event in the city: Monumental Yoga.

New and advanced yogis alike are invited to join us on their mats this for the 8th annual Monumental Yoga event.

You can also find vendors like Tallow Balm Indy at the event as well. Use the code “Indy Style” with her for a discount.

This is a free event, but donations are appreciated. Please consider a donation to Indy Yoga Movement so that we can continue in our mission to empower our youth through the development of lifeskill using yoga & mindfulness.

You can register for the class at, monumentalyoga.com.

$7.6M project to shine light on Monument Circle

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The nonprofit Downtown Indy Inc. and the Indiana War Memorials Commission shared details Tuesday about Shining a Light, a $7.6 million project funded by the Lilly Endowment.

Bob Schultz is senior vice president of marketing with Downtown Indy, which promotes Downtown as a great place to live, learn, work, and play. He said the project will tell the story of the Soldiers & Sailors Monument on Monument Circle.

“We have the beautiful monument behind us and we have this incredible Circle that is well under-lit during the evening hours and we wanted to infuse arts and culture and more experiences of that on this most iconic landmark,” Schultz said.

The 5-minute program will feature the monument in red, white and blue. LED lights are being placed on top of surrounding buildings and around the Circle.

“The old Anthem Building has video-projection pods that will illuminate and project 4D digital video onto these buildings that will tell the story of freedom,” Schultz said.

The program starting daily after dusk is expected to bring a new experience to the downtown Circle. Music from the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra will be heard as well.

Chris Gahl is senior vice president of Visit Indy, which promotes city tourism. He said, “It will give us another opportunity to invite our visitors to see Indianapolis in a very meaningful way, a very patriotic way, a very visually stimulating and tech-savvy way.”

Many people told News 8 that they’re looking forward to it all coming together starting Nov. 9.

“I think it sounds exciting honestly. I mean the Circle is like the stable of Indianapolis and something to live it up here would be cool, especially if it was every day,” said local resident Clayton Regnier.

Another person, Molly Tompkins, said, “It has a good cause with it, too. (I’m) military so we get it — veteran — it’s a good cause. It’s a good thing to remember everyone in the state.”