Light Night Festival brightens up the dark winter nights in Wigan

Wigan Pier’s dazzling mural projected across its historic walls left by-passers in awe as they moved along the night-time trail.

The Light Night extravaganza returned after a successful run last year along the canalside and included Trencherfield Mill this time.

This is something organisers hope to make an annual tradition to lure people into the heart of the borough and experience the culture.

The event kicked off with the light trail – which 8,000 people had signed up for over the weekend – and culminated in a lantern parade in Leigh which featured performances from WigLe dance.

The Magic Carpet from artist Zarah Hussain that dominated the side of Wigan Pier was a stand-out feature of the light trail, alongside Mick Stephenson’s canal boat-inspired masterpiece with children’s artwork. The latter was the biggest crowd draw, with children getting up close to see if their work had featured.

The artwork and the event itself took organisers six months to put together, but Wigan Council hope that this, alongside the Christmas lights switch-on, will be the indicator that the festive period has begun.

Coun Chris Ready said: “We got so much reaction from the public last year that we wanted to bring it back bigger and better. It is a combination of working with all our community groups, our artists and this is part of our cultural strategy.

“The canals and the infrastructure is so important to the people of Wigan and this just brightens all that up and makes a big difference. We want more people to come into the town centre and we have 8,000 people signed up this year.

“The lights mean Christmas is almost here and I would like to thank all our volunteers and cultural section who do make a difference and make this such a success. With it being November people are getting ready for Christmas, lights mean Christmas, and naturally it was embraced by the people of Wigan.

“I think people need a bit of cheering up nowadays with everything going on in the world and the politics at a national level. They need a distraction and something they can laugh and smile about with their families.”