Three-year funding boost for popular Morecambe 'illuminations' festival

A popular light art festival which brought 28,000 people to Morecambe this year has received a major three-year funding boost.

Baylight has been awarded £25,000 for each of the next three years (2025, 2026 and 2027) by Morecambe Town Council.

The festival, based around a trail of illuminated artworks on the Promenade, will now be presented 'in association with Morecambe Town Council', with the town council acting as the headline sponsor.

The decision was made at a town council meeting held at Morecambe Town Hall on Thursday evening.

It came after Richard Ryan and Jonathan Bean from Baylight organisers Morecambe Sparkle, gave a pitch to councillors asking for extra funding on top of money already granted by the council.

Mr Ryan said the event, held for the past two years during the February half-term, has been hugely successful and they want to keep it going for years to come.

He also said they were looking to temporarily cut the festival down from three nights to two and slash the budget for the event, but "keep the high quality".

Mr Ryan also said the team is also looking to expand the 2025 festival into the West End of Morecambe, having previously been a trail from the Stone Jetty to opposite Morecambe Town Hall.

"The plan is to take the start we've had with Baylight and keep it going," he told councillors.

"It's the February half-term. That's when the local economy needs a kickstart. People need a reason to go out, and it's free.

"We want to keep the quality, but (next year) go from three nights to two, then go back to three (nights) going forward.

"We have debated whether we should have a fallow year, but I think that's extremely risky. 

"We've seen how effective Vintage-by-the-Sea is as an event. Baylight is a night-time version, really."

Mr Ryan said that the cost of Baylight '24 was £243,000. For next year's event, they are looking to cut that to £199,000.

He said the costs are not confined to the weekend itself, but there is community work going on all-year round to prepare for the festival.

"The budget has come down quite a bit but we're going to deliver a similar impact of show," he said.

"Without Morecambe Town Council, it wouldn't exist. You released the money early to us in the first year, and that cashflow kept us liquid.

"It's the sort of thing, in my opinion, you should be involved in. These things cheer people up."

He also said they are looking to spend £71,000 on the art installations, compared to £111,000 at the previous festival.

"Last year and the year before, we had quite a few international artists," said Mr Ryan.

"They are great, but expensive. We are trying to go local this year, with high-end Morecambe Bay artists."

They also praised the Baylight parade, which was held on the Friday night of the festival earlier this year.

Thousands of onlookers watched the sea-themed parade featuring a giant octopus puppet, which also featured samba drumming band Samba Espirito, the Baybeat band, and local people dressed as sea creatures.

Read more: VIDEO: Huge crowds line Morecambe Prom to watch Baylight parade starring giant octopus - Beyond Radio

"This year the parade smashed it out of the park, next year we want it to be 90 per cent local," said Mr Ryan.

"The night we had the parade, you couldn't move on the Promenade (for people)."

Mr Bean said: "We moved the parade onto the main road to bring it closer to businesses (on Marine Road) and they said it had a massive impact."

Read more: Thousands more flock to Morecambe’s Baylight Festival in 2024 - Beyond Radio

The Sparkle team also said they want to develop a course, alongside Lancaster and Morecambe College, for local light artists which is "not done anywhere else in the country at the moment".

"Light art shows are a massive booming industry but there is a real shortage of light artists in the UK," said Mr Bean.

Councillor Paul Hart asked the Sparkle team why they were cutting the festival from three days to two.

Mr Ryan said they would save money on security costs and venue hire at the Winter Gardens.

"We've tried to look at every way to slice it down," he said.

Councillors then passed a vote to exclude the public and media, as they made a decision on the funding.

After calling everyone back into the town hall chamber, the funding was confirmed.

Councillor Russell Walsh, chair of Morecambe Town Council, said: "We love to see Morecambe buzzing."

Earlier this week, the Sparkle team launched a crowdfunding campaign for the 2025 event.

Morecambe Sparkle CIC are looking to raise just over £28,000 towards the cost of the community parade, with more than £15,000 pledged to date.

For 2025, the parade has an emphasis on celebrating local artists and communities.

The popular light art trail, which illuminates Morecambe's promenade, takes place on February 21 and 22, and has quickly become a highlight of Morecambe's cultural calendar since its inception in 2023.

A spokesperson from Morecambe Sparkle said: "We have just launched our Spacehive Crowdfunder campaign for our Baylight 25 Community Parade night and we'd love your help in spreading the word or making a pledge.

‘’Last year was amazing, and with your help, we can do even better next time.

‘’Baylight 24 attracted 28,000 visitors into the town centre and massively boosted community morale and the local economy alike at a time of year when spirits are low and trading is hard going."

Research carried out after the 2024 event revealed that a third more people attended the event than in 2023, in part to the popular Under the Sea Parade.

Visitor numbers were up every night, with some revealing they came for more than one evening to see the stunning light displays along the festival trail.

The spending power of the Morecambe community, visitors and staying tourists at Baylight produced an economic impact of over £900,000.

This was higher than in 2023 bringing a return on investment of £3.63 for every pound in grants from Lancashire County Council’s Economic Recovery and Growth Fund (LERG), Morecambe Town Council and Morecambe BID.

In figures given at Thursday's meeting, a survey showed that 96 per cent of visitors to Baylight '24 rated it positively, 95 per cent said they would like to come to another, and 94 per cent would recommend it to others.

A total of 63 per cent of businesses surveyed saw a rise in turnover.

Read more: Morecambe's Baylight festival launches crowdfunding campaign for 2025 - Beyond Radio