Best Awards for Blackpool Illuminations!

The world-famous Blackpool Illuminations has won a top accolade in a national travel awards scheme. Now voted Best Event in UK – it’s one of the top Awards for Blackpool Illuminations!

Best Awards for Blackpool Illuminations!

The annual display attracts millions of visitors to the resort during the autumn and winter months. Voted Best Event For Groups in the Group Leisure and Travel Awards, beating competition from other impressive finalists. They included Royal Ascot, BBC’s Gardeners’ World Live, Bournemouth Air Festival, RHS Malvern Spring Festival and the historical stage show, Kynren.

Readers of Group Leisure & Travel voted for their favourite events, it’s Britain’s best-read magazine for people organising group trips and holidays. Over 300 coach and tour operators were in the audience at the awards ceremony, held at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, London.

A VisitBlackpool spokesperson said: “We’re thrilled that tourism operators recognise the universal appeal of one of the UK’s most enduring visitor attractions.

“The Blackpool Illuminations display has been attracting groups and individuals from across the globe for more than a century. It’s still got the magic and sparkle that brings so much joy and pleasure to people of all ages.”

This Year’s Lights

This year’s display includes new tableaux from designers Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Leigh Francis (aka Keith Lemon). This years Lights begin at the annual Switch On celebration taking place on Friday 30 August 2024.

Staged in association with Hits Radio, the event includes a free-to-access concert on the Tower Festival Headland, ending with the iconic Switch-On moment. Illuminations season begins when a yet-to-be-named celebrity pulls the switch. The Lights shine nightly until January 5, 2025.

Last year’s Switch-On event marked a return to outdoors after three years of being inside because of the pandemic. The 2023 event attracted a record crowd of 80,000 onto the seafront to watch Sophie Ellis-Bextor pull the famous switch.

Lighting up the Seafront

The Blackpool Illuminations display is one of the biggest and longest-running light-based festivals in the world. The illuminations began in 1879 with just a handful of carbon arc lamps, creating what was described at the time as “artificial sunshine”.

In 1912 the first full display was launched to mark the first Royal visit to the resort. More than a century on, it spans six miles of seafront and incorporates over a million lights.

Organiser Blackpool Council has a bespoke Lightworks factory at Blackpool Airport. The spectacular lights are all made and maintained there.

Since 2020, the annual free event has extended over four months of autumn and winter. It brightens the dreary winter nights and delivers a huge boost to the resort’s economy. It’s also part of Blackpool’s Christmas by the Sea event.