Illuminations (festival)

Coordinates: 53°49′08″N 3°03′21″W / 53.81889°N 3.05583°W / 53.81889; -3.05583

Illuminations on Blackpool promenade
Illuminated trawler tram at Blackpool

Illuminations are secular Autumn festivals of electric light held in several English cities, towns and villages, in particular:

Blackpool Illuminations

Blackpool Illuminations run for 66 days each year. They switch on in late August with a star-studded 'Switch On' show and run to early November.

The 2006 Switch On was carried out by Dale Winton and the crowd were entertained by a host of acts including Peter Kay. David Tennant, a previous Doctor Who and past star of the Blackpool (television) television series, switched on the Lights in 2007. New for 2007 are a section outside the Tower called DecoDance, these were designed by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen additionally new Doctor Who illuminations have been erected outside the Dr Who exhibition.

At six miles (9.65 kilometres) long and using over one million bulbs, the Blackpool Illuminations are an awesome spectacle. The Blackpool Illuminations consist of a wide variety of light displays: lasers, neon, light bulbs, fibre optics, searchlights and floodlighting. In 2006, there were more than 500 scenic designs and features. There are set pieces made out of wood studded with light bulbs; the characters and objects portrayed seem to “move” by way of winking lights. Three-dimensional illuminated scenes are also popular. There are over 500 road features attached to lamp posts linked together with festoon lighting. Strings of lights along the structure of buildings pick out landmarks in luminous detail – you can always make out the Blackpool Tower and the Pleasure Beach Blackpool rides in this way.

Morecambe Once Bathed in lights, attracting 100,000 at their zenith.

Morecambe Illuminations

Morecambe's Illuminations once highlighted the promenade with a "spectacular wonderland of light" in the resort's main park - Happy Mount Park. The lights ran from 1919 until 1996, famous faces such as Roger Moore and Noel Edmonds and even the towns most famous son and his companion, Morecambe and Wise were called upon to switch the Illuminations on for each season. In 2015, Callum Henry, set up an ambitious campaign of proposals in which to bring back the illuminations. By 2016 a community Mini-Illuminations project funded by the Big Local National Lottery fund, and hosted by the West Street Exchange and @ShrimpingIt led to the first new Morecambe illuminations for twenty years, with 31 new tableaux designed by members of the Morecambe community and installed for the first time in Alexandra Square on November 30th 2016.

Past

See also

References

  1. ↑ "History of Matlock Bath Illuminations". derbyshiredales.gov.uk. Derbyshire Dales District Council. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  2. ↑ "Mousehole village illuminations". bbc.co.uk. BBC. Retrieved 25 August 2014.

External links

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