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Blackpool Illuminations: Everything you need to know

Blackpool IlluminationsImage source, Getty Images

Have you ever been told to turn off lights at home because "it looks like the Blackpool Illuminations"?!

Well, the actual illuminations, over a million lights, have just been switched on!

Lucy Fallon who plays Bethany Platt in Coronation Street, pulled the switch in front of almost 20,000 people along the seafront.

There were also several other famous faces to help with celebrations, including Busted, Diversity, Becky Hill, children's TV character Sooty and Britain's Got Talent contestants Flakefeet Children's Choir.

The tradition of illuminations that light up the town of Blackpool have happened for over a century鈥o what's it all about?

What are the Blackpool Illuminations?

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

This is a picture from 1954. It shows a new welcome arch on Blackpool Promenade.

The illuminations are a yearly lightshow.

Around six miles of Blackpool's coastline are lit up with loads of different colourful designs.

They're switched on every year for 66 days.

This year they'll be on between 30 August and 3 November.

More illuminating facts
  • More than three million people come to see the lights every year.

  • All the lights and equipment weigh more than 711,000 kilograms. That's the same as about 140 elephants!

  • When the illuminations first started they were described as "artificial sunshine".

How old are the Illuminations?

The illuminations are 140 years old.

They were first switched on in 1879 and at the time there were just 8 lamps.

Since then they've been switched on every year, apart from during World War One and World War Two.

How many lights are there?

Image source, Getty Images

Loads - more than a MILLION!

There are so many that it costs about 拢2 million every year to run the illuminations.

There are two main types of light: festoon and tableaux.

Festoon lights are the ones which hang over the road - they look a bit like a bigger version of Christmas tree lights.

Tableaux lights are more like illuminated pictures.

What about the environment?

Blackpool Illuminations now only use green energy from renewable sources such as wind and water. It means that carbon dioxide emissions caused by the illuminations is zero.