Diwali day festival site on the move
ALL OTHER EVENTS GOING AHEAD AT NEW VENUES
CHANGES have been made to the Diwali Day celebrations in Leicester after wet weather left part of the festival site waterlogged and unusable.
Festivities including a funfair, Diwali Village and a main stage featuring a programme of live entertainment had been due to take place on Sunday at Cossington Street recreation ground.
However, organisers have taken the decision not to use the site because of the amount of mud and standing water that remains after recent bad weather.
Instead, the celebrations will take place at the same location as the Diwali lights switch-on event two weeks ago, with the main stage in Belgrave Road, near Belgrave Circle.
The stage programme runs from 6pm to 8.30pm and will feature a packed entertainment programme.
Celebrations will culminate in a firework display over the Golden Mile at about 8.10pm, choreographed by local pyrotechnics company Bright Spark Fireworks.
Stalls which would have been on Cossington Street recreation ground will now be placed along Rendall Road, which runs alongside the park. They will be open from 3pm to 9pm.
Organisers have decided that the funfair cannot be relocated, so this will no longer take place.
The Wheel of Light will remain near the main stage in Belgrave Road and will give visitors views over the Golden Mile’s glittering lights from a 110-foot vantage point. On Diwali Day, it will be open for rides from 1pm until 11pm, and will remain in place until November 10.
Piara Singh Clair, Leicester deputy mayor for culture, leisure and sport, said: “We want everyone who comes to celebrate Diwali Day to have an enjoyable, safe time, enjoying the fantastic programme of events on offer.
“Having looked closely at the condition of Cossington Street recreation ground over the past two weeks following the wet weather, we feel that, unfortunately, it isn’t in a suitable state to host such a busy event.
“It isn’t a decision we’ve taken lightly, but working with the police, security and festival organisers we’ve agreed to move the main stage back on to Belgrave Road, where it is every year for the Diwali lights switch-on.
“It means we have nowhere to host the funfair, which sadly means it won’t take place this time.
“However, people will still be able to enjoy the Wheel of Light, the 6,000 glittering Diwali lights, the live performances from the ever-popular stage programme and, of course, the spectacular firework display, safely.”
■ Drone captures spectacular views of flooding, Pages 34 & 35.