MORGANTOWN — More than 6,000 LED pixel lights, individually placed and capable of precise manipulation to display a limitless array of colors meticulously choreographed to a soundtrack broadcast via FM transmitter.
The twinkles dance and jump amid projection displays and some 136 handmade props, both static and animatronic, using a complex array of controller boards and microprocessors running through a central computer.
Is this Disney World?
No. It’s Avery Drive.
Matt and Amy Scott are the imagineers behind this neighborhood magic.
Every Halloween and every Christmas the couple devotes weeks to planning, crafting, arranging and programming the presentation.
They’ve been at it for four years now, but the spark has been there for decades.
“We all grew up going to Marion Meadows and watching the light shows that family would put together. It was a husband-and-wife team who had a bunch of blow molds and a ton of lights. The family was really well known in the area,” Matt Scott said.
“We would go and sit outside for hours and look at these blow molds and all the lights in their displays.”
So, a few years back the couple took that inspiration and their love of the holidays — Matt, Halloween and Christmas for Amy — and came up with what they hoped would be a safe respite from the isolation of COVID.
And as the need for social distancing has diminished, the presentation has taken on a more social vibe.
“What’s different about our light show from anything else we have seen over the last 30 years in Morgantown is my wife and I are outside almost every night, meeting and greeting our guests, answering questions, talking to the kids and watching the smiles on their faces,” Matt said.
They’re also pulling double duty as valets of sorts, helping spectators find a spot to pull over, kill the headlights and tune in to 99.9 FM for the full Moonlight Meadows experience.
“We make sure the traffic is flowing and making sure our neighbors’ driveways are not being blocked,” Matt said. “That’s probably the biggest hazard we do have. We don’t want to upset our neighbors. We’re in a neighborhood and this could all be shut down pretty quickly by people not being polite to our neighbors.”
The Scotts have raised an estimated $11,000 over the last four years. Halloween donations go to Operation Welcome Home; Christmas proceeds all benefit Pantry Plus More.
They’re on Facebook as Avery Light fX and have a Venmo account. Monetary donations can also be dropped in a bucket incorporated into one of the props.
The show goes on 5:30 p.m.- 9:30 p.m., Sunday through Thursday and 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
But if Halloween’s not your thing, just wait til Christmas.
“When it comes to Halloween, I have about 6,000 pixels and my wife is pulling almost 12,000 pixels for the Christmas show,” Matt said. “There is a bit of a competition, but that being said, we’re 100% a team all the way.”
