MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The 26th annual Milwaukee Holiday Lights Festival is set to launch with a kickoff extravaganza at Pere Marquette Park. The six-week celebration begins at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 21, featuring live music, dance acts, holiday treats and fireworks. 

Pre-show entertainment by Kid Boogie Down starts at 5:30 p.m., followed by performances from DJ Shawna, Erin Fricker, First Stage, Dance Academy of Mexico, Jenny Thiel, the Marquette University Gospel Choir, Studio K Flamenco and Ben Mulwana.

You better not pout, and you better not cry, because Santa and Mrs. Claus are scheduled to appear.

The evening will end with a fireworks display shortly before 7 p.m. Attendees will receive free cocoa and cookies and can participate in complimentary Jingle Bus rides after the fireworks.

For those unfamiliar with the Jingle Bus, it is a 40-minute narrated tour that will operate Thursdays through Sundays, offering sights of the lights from Dec. 5 to Dec. 29 for $8 per person. Tickets must be purchased in advance.

From the start of the festival through Jan. 1, four downtown parks will feature light displays coordinated by Milwaukee Downtown, BID #21. The parks include Cathedral Square Park, Zeidler Union Square, Pere Marquette Park and Red Arrow Park, each transformed into winter scenes.

Street decorations will adorn three downtown thoroughfares, with Wisconsin Ave. showcasing an 18-block stretch of silver and gold chandeliers suspended above intersections.

Click here for more information about what to expect.