Spectacular new light festival attracted over 10,000 visitors and took Morecambe 'back to its heyday'

Crowds of visitors flocked to Morecambe Promenade to enjoy Baylight ’23, a light art trail organised by the Sparkle Community Interest Company, only formed last year.

From last Thursday until Saturday, visitors could see 17 installations by national and international artists dotted along the Prom from the Stone Jetty to Morecambe Town Hall.

Sparkle CIC chair, Sian Johnson, said: “It was thrilling to see so many people come to Baylight and from the spontaneous feedback I received, they thought it was a fantastic event for Morecambe and put the town back on the map.”

Although visitor figures are still being calculated, it’s thought that more than 10,000 people visited the festival which began with a parade.

Among the most impressive attractions was Laser Light City which saw lasers beam out from the Winter Gardens across the bay. Visitors could use their mobile phones to control the direction and colour of the laser beams to create their own light show.

Many of the installations were interactive including Angels of Freedom where people queued up to take ‘angelic’ selfies against illuminated wings and under illuminated halos.

“We wanted Baylight to be fun, especially for the family market,” said Sian.

Despite the drizzly weather, Baylight ’24 will take place in February again. Said Sian: “I think it’s good that there’s Light Up Lancaster in November at the beginning of winter and Baylight at the end.”

All the Baylight installations had been seen before at other festivals, including at Light Up Lancaster, but the plan for next year is to commission some new attractions.

Baylight ’23 was funded for two years by Lancashire County Council’s Economic Growth and Recovery Fund, set up to support projects to help local economies bounce back from the Covid-19 pandemic. Match funding was provided by Morecambe Town Council and Morecambe BID.

Chair of Morecambe BID, Ruth Wilkinson, paid tribute to Sian Johnson for all the hard work she’d done to get the event off the ground.

“You only needed to walk down the Prom over the three nights to see how independent businesses had worked together and had queues coming out of their doors. It took you back to the heyday of Morecambe as a seaside town.”