Magical Circus Acts And Stargazing Set To Illuminate Scarborough As Light Festival Returns

Scarborough will sparkle with twenty-eight light-themed events, including a magical circus in Falsgrave Park and stargazing at the castle, as the annual Scarborough Lights festival begins next week.

Dazzling light installations and illuminated landmarks will transform Scarborough as a major winter festival opens next week.

Free light-based activities and twenty-eight unique events will entertain families across the town from November 12th to December 20th. The town's iconic locations will host a variety of exhibitions, trails, and performances designed to celebrate the festive season.

Festival Director Catherine Goble outlined the scale of the upcoming programme:

"We've got 28 different things happening as part of Scarborough Lights this year. We put a call out for proposals some time ago, and that gave us over 40 different proposals of people wanting to get involved. Obviously, we haven't managed to do them all, sadly, but we've kept a lot of them on file for next year, so you never know what you might see then.

But yeah, this year there's a good mix, I think, and again it's locals and people from further afield.

There's installations, there's activities, there's exhibitions. So, all sorts of things that are just got some sort of light theme to them."

Historic architecture will provide the canvas for animated projections at one of the town's prominent churches. Catherine Goble detailed the plans:

"St. Mary's Church is such a lovely venue, and they're all really lovely people up there as well. So, animated objects are going to be doing some projections using the architecture of the church. Anybody who didn't come last year, you missed out, because it was really fantastic.

And they've improved on it this year, expanded on it. It's got a sort of Scarborough 400 theme. There's also going to be some of their lanterns and installations in the body of the church as well. So, it should be a really lovely experience up there."

A new event this year is a one night takeover of Falsgrave Park on December 20th,  where the twisty paths will for the backdrop to an event featuring circus performers, Catherine says they are aiming to create a magical feel to the evening:

"We're taking over Falsgrave Park with some circus acts. So there'll be aerial acrobats, there'll be underwater mermaids, LED jugglers and hula hoopers, there's a drumming circle, and then there's a poi performance as well, and my thinking in my head is that it will be this sort of magical journey through Falsgrave Park, going around the twisty-turney paths, and just discovering these acts that will be all lit up.

We're working with the Friends of Falsgrave Park, they're going to do some food and drink as well for sale. And yeah, it's just should hopefully be a just a lovely pre-Christmas treat with this sort of magical circus performers just in the park."

Organisers selected the location specifically for its hidden spaces and accessible layout. Catherine Goble explained the scheduling for the one-evening event:

"I was looking at various other places around Scarborough, and then I went, oh well I've never been to Falsgrave Park, I'll go and have a look at it. And the fact that it's this sort of tiered park with these windy paths is just spot on. I know that they've used the top part of the park for events before, which is this wide open space, but actually, I wanted the sort of hidden nooks and crannies. It's a one evening thing.

We've got four timed sessions just to give the acts a bit of a break so they're not doing 4 hours worth of activity all at once. Tickets are available, very reasonably priced. We're just trying to make it accessible to everyone, really."

Town centre businesses will also join the festivities as residents begin their holiday shopping by helping to host a series of illuminated trails. Highlighting the festive atmosphere, Ms Goble said:

"We've got three different trails. There will be the Sherbertella's Seaside Sparkle, which is illuminated fairies that will be in businesses in the sort of countdown to Christmas as we call it. But it's so popular, you know, and particularly Christmas when people are doing their Christmas shopping. It just gives a bit more atmosphere to it.

You know, we've already got three choirs signed up to be singing carols and things like that. And then we'll also have some street entertainment on the Saturdays leading up to Christmas as well."

Laser-guided tours and indoor light displays will offer affordable alternatives to traditional night-sky viewing. Outlining the stargazing and indoor activities, Catherine Goble noted:

"We've got Astro Dog are doing two events actually as part of Scarborough lights. One of which is the opportunity to do some stargazing at Scarborough Castle, so up on the Headland, using some laser-guided tours and various bits and pieces up there. They do stargazing events in Danby Forest and they're always really popular. It's a great opportunity to do that if it's something you've always wanted to do but felt it might be a bit expensive. This is a much more value-for-money way of doing it.

And then they're also doing an Aurora experience in St. Columba's Church. So another venue that we're using that we haven't used before which will have the sort of atmospheric queued lighting. There's time lapse footage of the Aurora, so that should be really lovely. And that's just a pay-what-you-want event so you can just turn up and enjoy that one.

And then UV mini golf which is taking place at Jam Jar Wine & Pinball Lounge, again, another venue we haven't used before, and also a couple of events at Cask and Keg. They did one last year, it was really popular. It's very silly, very fun table-top mini-golf with a load of ducks on the as well and, yeah, just a great sort of night out, I would say."