Tim Burton announcement captures the media’s imagination

The announcement of Hollywood film director Tim Burton as this year’s Illuminations switch on star has spread across the globe as excitement builds for Blackpool’s biggest night of the year.

Within minutes of the announcement being made the story had been picked up by the BBC, ITN, Sky News, radio stations, national newspapers, international websites and scores of magazines, regional and local newspapers across all corners of the UK.

It even made The Times Of India, an English language newspaper which has a readership of more than 7.5m people!

It was a similar story on social media with the announcement reaching approximately five million Twitter accounts and in the top 10 trending topics in the UK.

Hollywood megastar, Tim Burton, who is a huge fan of the resort, shot his upcoming film, “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” in the resort earlier this year.

A huge fan of Blackpool, he will pull the switch on Friday 4 September amid a star-studded concert featuring the likes of The Vamps, Professor Green, Lawson, Only The Young, Becky Hill and home-grown electro-pop superstar, Little Boots.

The switch on event marks the start of a three day iFest weekend.

On Saturday the arena will play host to the CBBC Saturday Shout Out show in the morning followed by a vintage pop concert in the evening; on the Sunday the focus turns to comedy with a line-up of top comedians hosted by Al Murray.

Cllr Gillian Campbell, Deputy Leader of Blackpool Council, said: “With only days to go excitement is really building in the town.

“The media coverage we received when we announced Tim Burton as our switch-on star was unbelievable; the news was trending on Twitter and the phone was ringing off the hook with journalists from across the country requesting interviews.

“One of the aims of the Switch-on weekend is to raise the profile of Blackpool to encourage more visitors. One of websites that covered the story was BuzzFeed which receives 175 million unique users every month.

“It is money can’t buy publicity that has put Blackpool and the Illuminations in the national and international spotlight.

“We expect the amount of coverage to multiply several times over as the media descends on Blackpool for the actual event.”

Saturday night’s show is a vintage pop concert featuring Bananarama, Jason Donovan and Paul Young among a host of top names from the eighties.

Our Sunday night show, meanwhile, features an incredible evening of comedy featuring Al Murray – The Pub Landlord – and a host of other top names.

To buy general admission tickets, go to www.seetickets.com or telephone 0871 220 0260, www.ticketmaster.co.uk/ifest  or direct from www.visitblackpool.com/shop or telephone 01253 478222.

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