Dazzling season of attractions unveiled for Crewe!
EXCITING plans have been unveiled to boost Crewe’s ‘feel-good factor’ and increase the town’s appeal to visitors with a spectacular season of lights in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
Crewe Town Council will raise the curtain on Lumen 2019 following the smash hit success of last year’s month-long campaign which attracted more than 11,000 people from across Cheshire and beyond to its sparkling launch night.
This year’s eagerly-anticipated Lumen – Crewe’s Nights of Lights kicks off on November 29 and will run until December 27 with the town’s Municipal Buildings once again being brought to life by a dazzling array of projected illuminations.
The fun-filled launch night, which also coincides with the festive lights switch on, will include a winter market, funfair, community lantern parade, light installations and a jaw-dropping display by an acrobat hanging from a giant helium balloon floating in the night sky.
The council is working with ArtReach and Double Take Productions, both well known in the art and entertainments industry, to stage the spectacle as part its campaign to promote leisure-led prosperity and put Crewe on the map as the go-to town for events with a difference.
Crewe Mayor Benn Minshall said: “Crewe is a great place to live, work and invest and our aim is to promote that. Lumen certainly got people talking about the town in a positive way. The feed-back was fantastic.
“Considering it was such a new and bold addition to our events programme, it couldn’t have been any more successful. Now I’m very much looking forward to Lumen 2019.
“The event is shaping up to be just as big and bright, if not more so, and there will be a few surprises on the night.”
The crowd-pulling Lumen launch night, which takes place from 5-8pm, will feature an unforgettable performance by unique aerial shows company The Dream Engine.
It’s staggering Heliosphere show which creates the illusion of flying will see an acrobat spiralling and spinning while suspended beneath a helium balloon above the town centre rooftops.
The town council is also hosting a colourful lantern parade and wants to hear from community groups and organisations that would like to get involved.
Lumen light show is not the only attraction that local people and visitors have to look forward to. Other mouth-watering events also in the pipeline.
Over the weekend December 7 and 8, there will be a Victorian Christmas Market by The Ministry of Steampunk – creators of Weekend at the Asylum, the world’s largest and longest running Steampunk Festival.
The festival drew more than 100,000 people to Lincoln over the August Bank Holiday and is expected to be a huge hit in Crewe.
On December 14 there will also be illuminated displays on Crewe’s Memorial Square.
This year’s attractions follow on from a hugely successful 2018 campaign which saw more than double the number of people drawn to Christmas light switch-on events in previous years.
The increase in footfall led to a bumper £104,995 spent in local outlets, based on a specially-commissioned survey of families attending.
Food was the family treat with lengthy queues seen in cafes, fish and chip shops and coffee houses that stayed open late for the launch night.
While most were from Crewe, others travelled from Stoke, Newcastle, Middlewich, Northwich and Derbyshire after hearing about Lumen on Facebook.
For more on Lumen activities in the run up to Christmas visit Facebook , Twitter or www.crewetowncouncil.gov.uk
To get involved in the lantern parade on the launch night contact the Events Officer on [email protected]
