House puts fright lights on show for Hallowe’en
AHOUSE in Southport famous for its spectacular annual Christmas decorations is now putting on a Hallowe’en spooky light show for people.
The home on Sidney
Road, in High Park, will be putting on its first proper light show with a Hallowe’en theme including bats, tombstones, black cats, spooky singing faces and scary eyes hidden in the bushes.
There will be plenty of smoke and fire, too, with ghosts in the bedroom and plenty of free hot dogs, tea, coffee and hot chocolate and sweets upwards of 6kg. Steve Henshall, 57, who works for an industrial ice cream machine company, lives in the house with his wife Janice, a retired midwife and their son Timothy, 23, and their four cats.
Steve said: “We got such great comments last year and so many people would stop to look at the decorations that we thought we’d do it properly this year.
“Our friends helped us build the display and I’ve been out there with my head torch on, along with Jaffa, one of our ginger cats, who’s very interested in what we’re doing!”
The event will be familyfriendly and will be held on Thursday, Oct-ober 31 and Saturday, November 2 in case the weather is bad for one event, or people can’t make it.
Steve said: “This year, there’s going to be synchonised lights to Hallowe’en music.
“We’ve taken from the
Americans with their tech of using smart pixels, the same kind that’s used in big screens in stadiums, so they’re not just lightbulbs from B&Q!
“They’re energy saving, too.
“I’m sure there will be a little blip in the electricity bill around October, with this amount of lights, but nothing like if it was regular bulbs.”
The house has staged an increasingly popular Christmas show for the past three years, and is now classed as a tourist attraction featured on the Visit Southport website as the Sidney Road Lights.
The attraction has now grown to 20,000 pixels and has many new sequences, including tributes to great movies such as Harry Potter and Star Wars, which have their own dedicated showtimes.
Last year, it had over 2,500 spectators during the three weeks of the display, with 275 shows, and raised almost £1,200 for Freshfields Animal Rescue.
Steve said: “This is very much a trial for the Christmas show to raise awareness that we collect for Freshfields Animal Rescue, so hopefully it will encourage people to put a few pennies in the pot!”
To find out more about the Sidney Road Hallowe’en shows, please visit the Sidney Road Lights page on Facebook. ●●Full guide: p30-31