Leamington Spa: Could lights festival return to town?

The Lights of Leamington steering group is working with an events company called Curated Place to see if a modern-day festival is feasible

Ambitious plans to revive a lights festival that drew large crowds to a Warwickshire town in the 1950s are being considered.

The Lights of Leamington ran in Royal Leamington Spa's Jephson Gardens for a decade between 1951 and 1961.

It was described as a "fairy tale of colour", and aimed to lift the mood of visitors who had faced years of austerity after the war.

Illuminated Jephson Gardens in the 1950s. It's now home to events like Art in the Park

Now Arts Council funding has been secured to conduct a feasibility study to see if a similar festival could be brought back to the town.

A Lights of Leamington steering group has published a collection of photographs from the 1950s, and is appealing for people's memories of the event, which ran through the summer and autumn.

Light festivals, similar to Leamington Spa in the 1950s, are still held in towns and cities across the UK

Steering group member David Clargo said: "I don't remember the festival, but I know people who do, and we've looked in the archives.

"And the trees were all lit up, they brought in various installations. There was music, there was dancing. There was lots and lots of fun. People from all over the Midlands came to Leamington for that festival and people remember it fondly."

Jephson Gardens is well-known for its fountains, geese and pigeons. But back in the 1950s, the lake was home to a pianist and giant swans

From land-locked Warwickshire, a taste of Alpine life on the water's edge at The Lights of Leamington

Mr Clargo added: "We know an awful lot of people remember, or even used to work on The Lights of Leamington, and there's always been, I think in the town, an ambition to try to bring back, reinvent, reimagine what that festival could be.

"So a small group of us got together and, through BID Leamington, have now got some money from the Arts Council to run a feasibility study.

"So that will really look at all the possibilities of how we would run a new festival that very much celebrates the heritage festival, but is very much about telling the story of Leamington today and we hope that in a few months' time, we'll have the results of that."

More than 90 miles from the sea, but The Lights of Leamington played host to an ocean liner

The Lights of Leamington provided a view of the Manhattan skyline

Visitors to Lights of Leamington were also offered a taste of Venice

While reflecting on the success of a festival staged more than six decades ago, Mr Clargo said: "We're about a modern Leamington, and a forward-thinking Leamington and we're about a festival where we hope lots of people from Leamington, Warwickshire and the wider Midlands would want to come and enjoy."

Dancing performances were a regular feature at The Lights of Leamington festival

A bandstand on the water for musicians to entertain visitors to The Lights of Leamington

So what are the chances of a feasibility study eventually becoming a fully-fledged festival?

"We're optimistic but we're realistic," said Mr Clargo. "This is a major project. This would be a very, very big, ambitious festival for the town and clearly that comes with a lot of issues, and a big price tag as well.

"So there are lots of things for us to to consider. I think what's really important in this feasibility study phase is to hear from as many people as possible.

"So that's why we want to talk to businesses, to local creative organisations and local people to find out what they want."

Jephson Gardens has been part of Leamington Spa life since Victorian times

First laid out in 1831 as informal riverside walks along the River Leam, the land was renamed Jephson Gardens and developed into formal gardens after 1846

The Lights of Leamington steering group is Sidney Syson, David Clargo, Carole Sleight and Steph Kerr

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