Thousands of Lights Will Glow Above the Hudson Friday Night — And Every One Holds a Name

A Mile-Long Bridge, Nearly 2,000 Lights, and the People We Don’t Stop Carrying

Lights Across the Hudson will fill the Walkway with luminaries Friday night—and you do not need any connection to hospice to take part.

By Larie Pidgeon / Hudson Valley Happenings

From a distance Friday night, the Walkway Over the Hudson will probably look like something out of a postcard—nearly 2,000 small lights stretching across the river, 212 feet in the air, with the Catskills doing their usual scene-stealing thing in the background.

Walk closer, though, and the view changes.

Each luminary represents someone who died, and somewhere behind every name is a person who still remembers exactly how they laughed, what they cooked, which song brings them back into the room or the very specific—and probably incorrect—way they believed a dishwasher should be loaded.

This Friday, July 31, from 7 to 9:30 p.m., the Walkway becomes something more than a bridge for a few hours. The Hudson Valley Hospice Foundation’s second annual Lights Across the Hudson will line the 1.28-mile path between Poughkeepsie and Highland with luminaries dedicated to people who are gone and remembered by those who remain.

Lisa Wilson, executive director of the Hudson Valley Hospice Foundation, told Hudson Valley Happenings that organizers expect to place close to 2,000 luminaries across the bridge. As of Tuesday, approximately 400 had already been dedicated.

That leaves a great many names still waiting to be added.

You Do Not Need Any Connection to Hospice to Come

I understand why the word “hospice” might make people assume this is a private remembrance for families whose loved ones received hospice care. It is not.

The event is free and open to everyone. You can dedicate a luminary to someone you lost, attend without purchasing one or simply walk the bridge and be present for the remembrance.

Grief is about as universal as human experiences get, yet most of us eventually end up doing it alone. There is the early period when people call, bring food and check whether you remembered to sleep. Then everyone else’s life returns to full speed, while yours has developed a before and an after that nobody can see from the outside.

Friday night gives those private losses a public place to exist together.

Nobody has to explain how long it has been, how the person died or why a particular memory can still knock the wind out of them on an otherwise ordinary Tuesday. Nobody has to perform being “over it,” whatever that would even look like.

What Will Happen on the Bridge

Lights Across the Hudson is designed to be gentle rather than heavily ceremonial. People can walk among the luminaries, listen to music and inspirational readings, share memories with the people they came with or simply stand quietly for a while.

The evening’s readings will include the Rev. Liz Estes of Old Dutch Church in Kingston and Ani Lhadrun of the Palpung Thubten Choling Monastery, along with additional local spiritual leaders.

Uncle Mike Hanson will provide the evening’s soundtrack. Live performances are planned from Hudson Valley Voices in Harmony, a nonprofit that supports young singers, and Mary Doherty, a licensed music therapist, Hudson Valley Hospice team leader and local performer.

Food trucks will include Lemon Love, Mercurial Coffee Co., From the Ground Up, Moose Scoops and Loaded Kitchen—because grief can be enormous and, at some point, somebody is still going to realize they forgot to eat dinner.

There is no required script for how to take part. You can walk silently, tell stories, cry or laugh loudly about something wildly inappropriate the person once did. Grief has never been particularly interested in behaving itself.

Nearly 2,000 Lights Require Quite a Few Hands

The glowing path will not appear by magic, although it may look that way once darkness settles over the river.

Wilson said it will take approximately two to three dozen people to assemble, place and later collect the luminaries. That group includes Hudson Valley Hospice and Foundation staff and volunteers, along with staff from Walkway Over the Hudson and New York State Parks.

Those workers will turn hundreds of individual dedications into one long display, then take the entire thing apart after everyone has gone home.

It is the sort of labor most people will never notice—which is usually how you know it was done well.

How to Dedicate a Luminary

Advance luminary dedications close at midnight Tuesday. After that deadline, bags will still be available during Friday’s event through a QR code displayed on-site.

There is one modern-world catch: purchases at the bridge must be completed online using a credit card. No cash will be accepted, so bring a charged phone and a card rather than discovering at 8:15 p.m. that your battery has chosen this exact moment to enter the afterlife.

If you cannot attend Friday, you can still support the Hudson Valley Hospice Foundation through its website.

Dedicate a luminary or find official event information

The Least Poetic Part of the Evening: Parking

A glowing memorial bridge is beautiful. Finding parking near it while several thousand other people attempt the same thing is character building.

You can enter from either Highland or Poughkeepsie, but the two sides offer very different parking experiences.

Highland entrance

87 Haviland Road

Highland, NY 12528

The Town of Lloyd charges for parking in municipal lots and marked spaces along Haviland Road, including the Rail Trail Caboose Lot and the lower gravel lot. Follow the posted signs for payment instructions.

Accessible parking is available free in the Rail Trail Caboose Lot. Organizers recommend entering from Highland for the easiest accessible parking and route onto the Walkway.

Poughkeepsie entrance

61 Parker Avenue

Poughkeepsie, NY 12601

Free parking is available at Pulaski Park, 162 Washington Street, approximately 0.2 miles from the Walkway’s Washington Street stairs. Parking is also available along Brookside Avenue between Washington and Garden streets, with additional marked spaces in the surrounding neighborhood.

Construction is currently making accessible parking difficult on the Poughkeepsie side, so Highland is the better choice when mobility is a concern.

Either way, arrive early. This is not the night to be circling the block at 8:47 while somebody in the passenger seat insists there was “definitely a spot back there.”

What Happens if It Rains?

The rain date is Saturday, August 1.

If weather forces the event to move, Hudson Valley Hospice Foundation will announce the change through its social media channels. The Walkway can also close during severe weather, so checking for an update before leaving home is a sensible move.

Before You Go

Event: Lights Across the Hudson

Date: Friday, July 31, 2026

Time: 7 to 9:30 p.m.

Rain date: Saturday, August 1

Location: Walkway Over the Hudson, with entrances in Poughkeepsie and Highland

Admission: Free and open to everyone

What to expect: Nearly 2,000 memorial luminaries, live music, inspirational readings, quiet reflection and food trucks

Luminaries: Advance dedications close Tuesday at midnight; night-of purchases must be completed online by credit card

Accessibility: The Highland entrance is recommended for the easiest accessible parking and route

Official information: Hudson Valley Hospice Foundation

Why a Bridge, of All Places

There is something almost too fitting about holding this on a bridge. A bridge exists between two places. So does grief.

There is the life before someone dies and the life after, and the person left behind somehow has to stand in both—carrying what existed while continuing toward whatever comes next.

That does not mean leaving anyone behind. The people we lose have a stubborn habit of turning up anyway: in expressions we apparently inherited without asking, advice we ignored and later realized was right, recipes nobody measures properly because neither did they, and stories that grow slightly better with every retelling.

A paper luminary cannot hold an entire person. It cannot contain the sound of a laugh, the warmth of a hand or all the ordinary Tuesdays that only became precious once there were not going to be any more of them.

It can still say something simple.

This person was here. Someone remembers.

Friday night, nearly 2,000 of those small declarations will glow together above the Hudson. From a distance, they may look like one continuous ribbon of light.

Walk closer.

Every light is its own story.