Blackpool's summer season returns with 'year to remember'

Ms Williams said the programme would include the "welcome return of some old favourites"

Blackpool's first full summer season in three years will make 2022 "a year to remember", its council leader has said.

The town's tourism businesses feared for their futures when Covid-19 hit in 2020 and caused widespread disruption.

However, Lynn Williams said the resort had seen a huge bounce-back and "record visitor numbers" in recent months.

She said the 2022 programme would include a tram parade for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee and the Illuminations' largest ever light installation.

A "glorious parade of heritage trams" will mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, a council spokeswoman said

"Over the past two years, we have worked extremely closely with our resort partners to ensure that Blackpool could emerge from the pandemic in a position of strength," she said.

"This is our first full year of tourism since 2019 and we are determined to make it a year to remember."

She added that the council's "substantial investment in marketing and events last year resulted in a spectacular recovery" and the authority would "look to build on that with new events, the welcome return of some old favourites and one of the most ambitious TV campaigns we have run".

September will see the unveiling of Odyssey, the biggest light installation ever made for the annual Illuminations

A council spokeswoman said the season's highlights would include a "glorious parade of heritage trams along the seafront to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee" in June and a global live-streaming of the Illuminations Switch-On concert in September.

She said the September event would also see the unveiling of Odyssey, the biggest light installation ever made for the annual Illuminations, which had been created by Lady Gaga costume designer Jack Irving and a team of computer scientists from Lancaster University.

The Illuminations will also be kept alight for two extra months again, having previously been extended in 2021.

There will also be a full calendar of free events, including the two-day Blackpool Air Show, the World Fireworks Championship and the return of arts festival Lightpool.

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