Blackpool Lightpool Festival postponed

Blackpool’s annual Lightpool Festival has been postponed due to ongoing COVID restrictions.

The two-week event, which was due to run over the half-term holiday from October 16-31, is an annual celebration of live performance, 3D projection shows, parades and light-based installations.

Organisers VisitBlackpool said today that the current restrictions on events, coupled with growing uncertainty over the possibility of further national restrictions in the weeks ahead, meant that the main elements of the programme could not go ahead as planned.

Cllr Gillian Campbell, Cabinet Member for Tourism & Culture, said: “It is really disappointing that we have had to postpone this year’s event, particularly at such short notice.

“But given that there is no likelihood of any restrictions easing over the next few weeks, we feel that the safest option is to postpone.

“Once we stripped out the more spectacular parts of the usual programme to avoid attracting crowds to specific locations on the promenade and in the town centre, it meant the festival would have been a much-diluted offer compared to previous years.

“Hence, we have decided to postpone the whole event and then explore whether it can be safely staged either later this year or in the early part of 2021.”

The decision to cancel the festival has no bearing on the annual Illuminations, which will continue to shine along the entire seafront each night until January 3 – two months later than the usual switch-off date.

Cllr Campbell added: “The Illuminations can be viewed in a COVID-safe way as a drive-through experience. As always, we would simply ask all of our visitors to respect the rules and regulations when they are in resort to protect their own health and that of others.”