Mayor of Crewe, Cllr Benn Minshall, switched on the town’s festive lights on Friday 27th November.
Restrictions imposed by Covid19 meant that the usual colourful switch-on event was not allowed to take place and all the planned light installations and specially commissioned projection will now be saved for 2021 instead.
In this moment of quiet, in the absence of crowds, music and fireworks, Cllr Minshall shared a message of positivity and hope as the lights came on, captured in the video below.
Thank you to Blitz Fireworks for working overnight to make sure the lights looked as good as they could, and to Heelheadover Productions for the video.
Video Transcription
Time: 2:09
Good evening, everybody. I’m Councillor Benn Minshall, the Mayor of Crewe, standing here on what is a very cold night.
Normally, I would be warm from the excitement of being with all of you, as we have a big switch on. Sadly, this year, we cannot do that as a result of the pandemic, but we still wanted to do something.
This year has been particularly difficult, we all know that; we have been tested like never before.
So we wanted to do something just to add a bit of cheer to people’s lives.
We are coming up to a very difficult part of the year, it is a time where we all think about someone who is no longer with us. And sadly, this year we have lost too many people.
We think about those we have lost, and we think about those who are here. And the message to them is you are not alone. We are here for you. We as a community can be your family if that is what you need, you just need to say.
Normally, this evening is full of excitement. There are people standing all around and children laughing. As I say, we have not got that, so it is very different this year.
But the team that do the lights for us have been hard at work. And as I say we just wanted to do something to brighten up everyone’s evening. So without further ado, I’m going to turn on the lights!
Video credit: HeelHeadOver Productions
Christmas Lights in Crewe
Photos provided by Pete Robinson from the Crewe Photographic Society
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