The Blackpool Illuminations is an annual lights festival with over one million light bulbs. Founded in 1879 and held each autumn from August until November they are on for 66 nights a year. In 1934, the town began a tradition of marking the start of the festival by hosting a public figure to perform the inaugural switch-on of the lights. For the first public ceremony, the honor was performed by Lord Derby. In subsequent years, hosts have predominantly been drawn from the world of entertainment with occasional appearances by sportspeople and political figures. Unusual hosts have included a Canberra bomber aircraft in 1969 and racehorse Red Rum in 1977.

List of switch on hosts Year1934Lord Derby1935Audrey Mosson (Railway Queen of Great Britain)1936Sir Josiah Stamp1937Prince George, Duke of Kent1938Councillor Mabel A. Quayle (Mayoress of Blackpool; first woman councillor)1939–1948Cancelled due to World War II1949Anna Neagle1950Wilfred Pickles1951Stanley Matthews1952Valerie Hobson1953George Formby1954Gilbert Harding1955Yakov Malik (Soviet Ambassador)1956Reginald Dixon1957John H. Whitney (American Ambassador)1958A. E. "Matty" Matthews1959Jayne Mansfield1960Janet Munro1961Violet Carson1962Shirley Anne Field1963Cliff Michelmore1964Gracie Fields1965David Tomlinson1966Ken Dodd1967Horace King1968Matt Busby1969Canberra Bomber1970Tony Blackburn1971The cast of Dad's Army1972Danny La Rue1973Gordon Banks1974Wendy Craig1975Cast of Doctor Who: Tom Baker (in costume as The Doctor), Elisabeth Sladen and Ian Marter1976Carol Jean Grant (Miss United Kingdom)1977Red Rum1978Terry Wogan1979Kermit the Frog and The Muppets1980Cannon and Ball1981Earl & Countess Spencer1982Rear Admiral Sandy Woodward1983 Cast of Coronation Street, switched on by Doris Speed1984Johannes Rau (Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia) and David Waddington,(Minister of State, the Home Office)1985Joanna Lumley, BBC Children in Need, and Audrey Mosson (50 year anniversary)1986Les Dawson1987Frank Bough, Anne Gregg and Kathy Tayler, all from the BBC's Holiday programme1988Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sarah Brightman1989Frank Bruno1990Julie Goodyear and Roy Barraclough1991Derek Jameson and Judith Chalmers1992Lisa Stansfield1993Status Quo1994Shirley Bassey1995Bee Gees1996Eternal1997Michael Ball1998Chris de Burgh1999Gary Barlow2000Westlife2001Steps2002Ronan Keating2003Blue2004Geri Halliwell2005Chris Evans2006Dale Winton2007David Tennant2008The Stig with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond from BBC Top Gear2009Alan Carr2010Robbie Williams2011Keith Lemon20126 of Team GB's London 2012 medalists. (Beth Tweddle, Greg Rutherford, Karina Bryant, Luke Campbell, Max Whitlock and Sophie Hosking)2013Jonathan Ross2014Peter Kay2015Tim Burton2016Barbara Windsor2017Star Trek: Discovery (Jason Isaacs) and Diversity 2018Alfie Boe2019Lucy Fallon2020A group of Britain's Coronavirus NHS Heroes2021Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas2022Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen (replacement for Johnny Vegas)2023Sophie Ellis-Bextor2024Mel B (Scary Spice)2025Olly Murs2026Paddy McGuinness

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