This year is certainly proving to be a special one for the UK what with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens birthday, the 100th anniversary of Titanic’s maiden voyage and how could we forget Great Britain’s golden achievements in the British Summer of Sport that took hold in London? There’s one more celebration to add to the list and that is the 100th birthday of the Blackpool Illuminations. Can you believe that in the 1930s, 150 trains would come from Manchester alone just to see the big Switch-on? Even now over 4 million every year travel to the Golden Mile to take in the fantastic lights, Door2Tour coach holidays investigates the reasons why…
Millions of people nowadays flock to the entertaining seaside resort of
Blackpool every year, for one reason and one reason only… to see the colourful Illuminations! We thought we’d take you on a trip down memory lane and show you why the Blackpool Illuminations are still popular generations of families. It all started back in 1912 with a visit of Princess Louise, Queen Victoria’s Granddaughter, who opened a stretch of the famous promenade. Apparently, excitement within the town reached extraordinary levels as the town had never received a visit from Royalty before so they decided to decorate the Promenade with colourful lights in her honour. People from all across Lancashire turned up to see Princess Louise and the opening of the Promenade as well as seeing the lights. The event was such a huge success that the council decided to make the switching on of the Lights a regular feature of the Holiday Calendar so every year in Autumn, the promenade becomes a mass of colour as the Blackpool Illuminations are turned on.
During the 1930s, the popularity of the Blackpool Illuminations reached a peak with approximately 150 trains leaving Manchester for the Big Switch-on Night in Blackpool. Now more than 4 million people visit each year during the 66 days of the Blackpool Illuminations and this equals to almost half of the town’s annual tourist numbers. No rainy October evening would be the same without queuing along the Golden Mile to gaze in wonder at the glowing Disney characters and other formations lighting up the Promenade.
There are some wonderful tales to be heard from previous years of the
Blackpool Illuminations, for example, back in 1970 the theme of the Lights was Space in order to mark the Moon Landings that happened the year before. To mark the occasion, 24 astronauts and their rockets lit up the Prom but there was a slight problem, the workers attaching the fixings, hooked them up the wrong way round so it looked like the astronauts were flying downwards! Another funny tale was in 1982 when the council decided to have its first moving Illumination. This involved a local man being dressed in fibre-optics who walked along the promenade. Unfortunately, the local kids were scared, thought it was a real robot and threw objects at him! Apparently, the fibre-optic man will be making a reappearance for the Centenary Celebrations so if you’re visiting the Blackpool Illuminations in 2012, keep your eyes peeled for him.
The Illuminations have always attracted Big Names from the worlds of sport & showbiz and this year was no exception with some of the Olympic Gold Medallists and X Factor Winners, Little Mix taking part in the big Switch-On. Did you know that for 38 years, Walt Disney gave Blackpool permission to use all his characters in the Illuminations display for free? He saw it as being a great opportunity to publicise his films to the public. He gave the designers of the Blackpool Illuminations, some of his original drawings so that they could get the Lights looking exactly like his characters – these drawings are still in Blackpool today!
Have you been to see the Blackpool Illuminations? If so, what was your highlight? Get in touch and let us know, we’d love to hear from you.