Enchant Christmas, an immersive Christmas experience founded by Kevin Johnston in 2016, is growing fast and has announced that former Cirque du Soleil executive Jerry Nadal will be joining the team as Chief Operating Officer to spearhead the expansion.
Enchant Christmas began as a small lighting business and has turned into a magical extravaganza featuring a display of over 4 million lights, an adventure light maze, a holiday market, and more. The event is now looking to expand to even more US cities this fall, with Nadal leading the way.
XLIVE caught up with Nadal to discuss his new role and what’s in store for the immersive Christmas event.
XLIVE: Congratulations on your new role! What drew you to Enchant Christmas, and how do you plan to leverage your experience with Cirque in this new position?
Jerry Nadal: Thanks! After all my years with Cirque…and following the Covid evolution of live entertainment, I see the trend is moving solidly towards immersive entertainment experiences. This is exactly what Enchant is doing and when you add in the family and friends appeal, combined with Christmas, the experience is a home run. Enchant has proved the concept over the last couple of years and now we are ready to expand our offerings across the U.S. I was responsible for the buildup and expansion of Cirque's resident show division, and I see the same opportunity with Enchant to bring the joy and magic of the holidays, and all we have to eventually offer to as many as 30+ cities in North America as well as key international destinations.
XL: What are some of your goals for the year ahead (and beyond)? What are you most looking forward to?
JN: Well, we have some very ambitious goals THIS year! We are actually more than doubling the number of ENCHANT shows we are producing — going from 4 to 9! We’re introducing new guest experiences within ENCHANT, in addition to our incredible light maze, and ice skating — we’re adding even more entertainment, merchandise, food and beverage offerings as well. So I’m most looking forward to getting through Christmas this year! But in terms of long range — we have plans to refine and expand our concept, as well looking at other live event concepts to leverage our operational and staffing structure year round.
XL: How has the pandemic affected the demand for this type of experience?
JN: After coming off very big attendance in 2019, we had to sit out 2020 — but last year we rallied and had an amazing comeback with over 1 million guests come attending our 4 shows. So that told us that people were more than ready to get out with family and friends – and specifically – get out safely OUTSIDE, which is exactly what our event offers. We can’t wait to bring the event back to our favorite cities and introduce ENCHANT to 4 more!
XL: Is there anything you can tease about what people should expect as Enchant expands to more cities this year?
JN: Our company founder, Kevin Johnston, is a creative visionary and is always developing new ideas to enhance the unique aspects of our event — we’re not just a pretty light display — we produce the world’s only story-driven maze experience with 4 million lights as our anchor attraction and deliver a premium holiday evening experience for families and friends. This year you’ll see us up our live entertainment, and along with our minus 14 degree Ice Bars, we’ll add other fun winter themed experiential activities like ax throwing into ice blocks, and our version of corn-hole “snow hole” with snowballs. As we expand into other markets, we are focused on introducing the brand to new audiences, building our reputation with guests, and making a visit to ENCHANT an annual holiday tradition in cities across America.