The annual lights festival known as the Blackpool Illuminations was first switched on in the September of 1879, when they were spoken of as artificial sunshine. The illuminations run for 66 days from late August until the start of November and attract over three million visitors a year. Referred to as the ‘greatest free light show on earth’ in 2011 Blackpool Illuminations‘will run from 2nd September through to November the 6th.
The first night of the Illuminations is known as the Big Switch On and attracts thousands of visitors every season and nowadays the lights use only green electricity. The Blackpool Illuminations run for ten kilometres and contains practically every light display you could imagine including LED, fibre optics and flood lighting. The 2011 switch on will take place for the first time on the new Tower Headland in front of the famous Blackpool Tower and it is anticipated that the Switch on Concert will be by ticket only and hosted and broadcast by two radio stations.
Rumour has it that the concert will be a free ticket event but this has yet to be officially announced. Some of the other events that are planned to take place during the Switch On weekend include Illumathon – a midnight charity walk of the Illuminations by 1500 ladies and a Honda Goldwing Light Parade with hundreds of Honda Goldwings ridden in procession along the promenade. As in 2010 a giant screen will be erected between the South and Central Piers showing the concert and the switch on so that people on the St Chads headland will be able to see it. It is expected that 3 daleks and 3 tardis will be sited within the current Dr Who feature outside the Dr Who exhibition and the lighting effects should show the tardis travelling through time and space to reappear at the other end of the promenade.
