Lights fantastic!
PANTO STARS TO JOIN FESTIVE SWITCH-ON AT NEW LOCATION
THIS year’s Christmas lights switchon will be welcomed with a huge fanfare after it was cancelled last year.
A live stage show and a new location have been planned for the event on Saturday, November 13.
The road outside the Council House will be closed and a bespoke stage erected in Corporation Street.
The event was cancelled last year but normally has taken place in the Market Place which this year is unavailable as it is hosting the Derby Loves You venue.
The organisers say that the space in Corporation Street will give everyone a chance to distance from each other while they enjoy the entertainment, as well as getting a better view of the Christmas lights as they are switched on.
Final details are being put in place for the show, which will be hosted by Smooth Radio and feature a popular music act and preview this year’s Derby panto, Sleeping Beauty, starring Rita Simons who played Roxy Mitchell in EastEnders.
Starting at 4pm, a parade will weave its way from The Spot and through St Peter’s Street, Cornmarket and Derby Market Place to the stage. It will be led by the Derby Season of Light community lantern parade, made up of adults and children with lights created in workshops led by Surtal Arts.
At the head of the parade will be professional artist Stephanie Sian Coley with her show-stopping lantern sculpture, which she will create at the Museum of Making during the Season of Light. Traditional Dhol drummers will sound the parade.
Entertainment will start onstage in Corporation Street at 3.30pm, with the show ending with the grand finale of the Christmas lights switchon at 6pm. The event will be produced by Derby LIVE, Derby City Council’s events arm, with the support of media partner Smooth Radio and CityFibre.
Councillor Ross McCristal, the city council’s cabinet member for leisure, culture, tourism and wellbeing, said: “We shared everyone’s disappointment last year when we decided not to hold a traditional Christmas lights switch-on event because of the pandemic, so I am delighted that this year it will be back and better then ever with a new stage giving a better view of the lights.
“There will be plenty of traditional entertainment too, with stars of panto and live music and dance.
“The parade through the city centre will be a real spectacle, with the lanterns made for the Season of Light project bringing people together to celebrate all the key cultural and religious festivals involving light.
“It’s another example of how culture in our city is bringing our communities together, which is key to our UK City of Culture 2025 bid.”
Derby was recently longlisted to be one of eight cities and regions bidding to be City of Culture in 2025.
It is not known if the giant illuminated Christmas presents, which first appeared in the Market Place in 2019, will return this year.
The four-metre-square gifts which light up and play music as people walk under them replaced an ice rink as the city’s main Christmas feature.