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Blackpool Illuminations to be extended again after huge visitor surge
You’ll have plenty of time to take your kids and reminisce about school trips.
Blackpool Illuminations is to have the length of its famous winter illuminations attraction — enjoyed by generations of families from across the North West — extended even further after a surge in visitors.
Blackpool Council have said they saw a ‘dramatic rise’ in visitor numbers in last year’s extension. This year, the iconic lights are set to run for an extra two months starting from September 1st until January 1st 2024.
The local authority said a similar November and December extension in 2022 had seen an 18% increase in promenade footfall compared with 2021, with its leader Lynn Williams saying it had found a ‘winning formula’.
Councillor Lynn Williams said: “The figures demonstrate the very significant economic impact of the Illuminations extension coupled with the Christmas By The Sea event.”
She continued: “All of the statistical and anecdotal evidence from tourism businesses, with some reporting record levels of trading during the winter months, suggests that we have found a winning formula to extend Blackpool’s season.
“That is something we very much want to sustain and build upon.”
The footfall also shows an increase of almost 60 per cent compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019, when the illuminations season finished in November.
The (what’s now a) six-mile stretch of dazzling displays first began 1879 — when they were just a small number of carbon arc lamps — and have since been enjoyed by generations upon generations of people.
Taking children to see Blackpool illuminations is a tradition that brings grown adults back with littles ones of their own, as they experience nostalgia.