Hannah Oswalt is a business owner and mother of six with an obviously busy life. When you discover that she’s the interior designer for the Inaugural Nutcracker Festival launching in Tulsa this December, your first question is undoubtedly, “How?”
Unsurprisingly, the gig didn’t come to Oswalt by accident.
“I applied for it,” she said in an interview with Sapulpa Times. “I saw that they were looking for someone to help bring this dream to life, and they had some ideas of what they wanted to include, and I submitted a mood board and combined it with some ideas that I came up with and got the job.”
Launching the Nutcracker Festival seems at least as challenging as raising a large family; it will be held in the SageNet Expo Center and part of Oswalt’s job is transforming 85,000 sqft of space into a winter wonderland. Primarily driven by the Tulsa Ballet, in partnership with TulsaGo and financially supported by the Hardesty Family Foundation, the Nutcrack Festival “promises to captivate audiences with a blend of festive activities, culinary delights, live performances by local artists, and a premier holiday marketplace,” according to a press release for the event sent out last week.
Some of those festive activities include an ice skating rink, holiday inflatables, and a train ride to see the Sugar Plum Fairy. The event includes scenes right out of The Nutcracker, including familiar settings such as the “Land of Sweets” and “Drosselmeyer’s Toy Shop.” A giant light-up Christmas tree will go from the ceiling to the floor. The entrance doubles as a gift shop and is flanked by giant Nutcracker soldiers. “Captivating” is indeed a good word for the experience as it’s described.
“For over fifty years, Tulsa Ballet’s annual production of The Nutcracker has become a holiday tradition for generations of local families, who either attend a performance or have been involved in the children’s cast joining the professional dancers on stage,” says Scott Black, Managing Director at Tulsa Ballet. “We have been dreaming of a way to extend the magic of this production beyond the stage and The Nutcracker Festival will do just that, by creating a family-friendly indoor holiday event that all ages can enjoy.”
“The creation of new experiences in Tulsa is essential for building a strong, resilient, and prosperous community that thrives both culturally and economically,” says Erik-Michael Collins, Senior Managing Partner at TulsaGo. “The Nutcracker Festival exemplifies TulsaGo’s commitment to nurturing local creativity, drawing city visitors and tourists, and enriching our city’s cultural landscape. We are proud to partner with Tulsa Ballet on this groundbreaking Oklahoma holiday attraction – the first of its kind in the country.”
The 2024 Nutcracker Festival is set for December 6-7 at the Expo Square SageNet Center in Tulsa, OK. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit nutcrackerfest.com.
