Where might one find three giant jellyfish, a Dalek, and a flying bear? In a fever dream perhaps, but also here, in the Blackpool Illuminations storehouse.
Inside this nondescript building, close to Blackpool airport, is where the magic is made.
A team of just 35 staff design, build and maintain the Lancashire town’s annual light display, which has endured for almost 150 years.
It is where the modern meets the traditional; a huge black cast iron drill dating back to 1937 is still used to construct the illuminations, but it sits alongside a cutting-edge 3D printer.
“We don’t buy illuminations at all,” head of illuminations, Richard Williams, said. “We manufacture absolutely everything.”
One of the biggest drivers for changes to their manufacturing process in recent years has been climate change. The designers have been forced to adapt the displays so they can withstand stronger winds, while also reducing their own energy output to avoid exacerbating the very problem they are trying to mitigate against.
Against a wall in the storehouse is one of the most famous “heritage” illuminations, Hickory Dickory Dock, a huge tableau where a mouse runs up and down a grandfather clock. It has been badly damaged by strong winds.
Now, rather than being constructed from solid blocks of wood, tableaux are designed in a trellis style, to allow the wind to rush through the gaps.
“We’ve had to adapt more of [the manufacturing] now, because with the climate change, the winds have got a lot stronger, a real lot stronger, and we do get things that blow down occasionally,” Williams added.
If there is a yellow wind warning in place, there will be someone on call to attend to any reports of falling lights; with an amber or red, staff patrol the seafront.
While until recently the Illuminations season ran from late summer until early November, during Covid the season was extended until just after Christmas to boost the local economy. This time, it runs until 4 January.
Many of the displays are decades old, but they are rebuilt, repurposed and modernised. “We started investing in LED technology back in 1999 and we’ve reduced our power consumption by 85% which is huge,” Williams said.
“So it’s paid off for us. Even the last couple of years, because LED technology moves on all the time, we reduced our consumption by 1% each year for the last two years. So it’s still going, [and] really important.”
“Some [illuminations] are a lot older than me,” Williams said. “It’s really great for parents and grandparents to come back and see things that they remember.” And when an illumination is eventually retired, he said, “we’ll use everything that we can, and redesign it to something”.
“Everyone loves the heritage, don’t they?” he added. “And I think there’s room for absolutely everything. So there’s room for new, but also room for traditional. I think that’s quite a challenge, getting that balance just right.”
Throughout the season, lights are rotated in and out of the six-mile trail to encourage repeat visits. It means visitors could come two or three times during a season and see a different display each time.
In recent years, they have moved to more interactive lights along the seafront; tunnels to walk through, and baubles to pose for a photograph inside.
“That’s one of things we’ve tried to do now, is to get people out of their cars,” Williams said. “Obviously it’s better for them to be walking, but also better for us and the economy, because you might go and buy a cup of coffee and things like that. Because ultimately, that’s what we are, an economic tool.”
In 2029, Blackpool Illuminations will mark its 150-year anniversary. “I’ve always said I feel like a custodian, I’m pretty honoured to look after it,” Williams said. “You always like to think you leave it in a better place than where it was, and then hand over to someone else for the next 150 years.”
While there are now festive light trails in parks and tourist attractions all over the country, Blackpool is still the original, and, Williams would argue, the best. It is also free of charge – although public donations typically amount to £90,000 per year. “I think we can safely say we’re the capital of light now,” Williams said.
And does he think the appeal will endure for the next 150 years? “I think it will, I think there’s always tradition,” he said. “Everyone might not have seen them, but they’ve heard of them.”
