GL1800 at Pontins ready for the 2009 Blackpool Light Parade

Pictures from the Blackpool Illuminations Goldwing Light Parade now uploaded to 2009 Gallery.  Alternatively visit the official Light Parade website for the latest stunning  pictures and Video.

If you have any pictures you would like adding to the gallery please let your friendly chairman  have them at the next meeting. Either on a memory stick or card.

Friday nights "best light bike" competition

The organisation of the Light Parade for 2009 has proved to be the most complicated to date. I wont bore you with the detail but it was certainly an uphill climb for those involved.  Thankfully everything is now in place from the accomodation, entertainment, police and the light parade on the Saturday night itself.

Light Parade 2006

The final details are now taking shape nicely for this years Blackpool light parade. We have had to manage quite a few problems this year but most of the major hurdles are now sorted. We had positive news from the Police that they can provide us with a Green Light at Squires Gate Traffic lights and also some cover at Gynn Square at the opposite end of the promenade,.  The evening’s entertainment at Pontins promises to be spectacular with plenty of Pontins glamour, plus we will have Knutsford Honda in attendance over the weekend. Lots of other minor stuff to pull together but you couldn’t ask for much more.

The team are really looking forward to welcoming you all to Blackpool again this year. It’s going to be a great weekend   

Blackpool

This year’s dates for the Blackpool Light Parade weekend have now been confirmed as 4th to 7th September 2009.

Full details of the event are currently being prepared and will appear on the Light Parade website shortly.

Garry from Pennine Wings

Thank you most sincerely from the Organisers to everyone who came to our 2008 Event and contributed to the atmosphere of friendship in which the whole weekend was conducted. Thank you also to those of you who have taken the trouble to provide us with feedback via this website and elsewhere. Here is a summary of what we have learned from your feedback and from our own experiences of the 2008 Light Parade, together with some indications of how we will try to make use of them for future event planning.

The major change for 2008 was extending the Event to a three night weekend with an associated expansion of the programme for Wingers to include technical training talks and ride outs for the Sunday and a ladies programme. We also expanded the daytime display of GoldWings on the Promenade into a two-day display with the aim of projecting safe and responsible motorcycling to other bikers as well as the public, including of course a major contribution by HondaUK and two of their Dealers as well as the spectacular skills of the Central Florida Motorcycle Drill Team.

Apart from finding ourselves a bit short-handed at times, trying to cover the considerable marshalling and stewarding demands of all these activities, the Event went remarkably smoothly and has been highly praised – for which we are of course very grateful. The considerable planning effort which went into the 2008 Light Parade therefore seems to have paid off. We were of course extremely lucky with the weather too, which was a terrific bonus.

Expanding the Event to a three night weekend seems to have been well received and to be worth continuing, even though not every Winger was able to take full advantage of it. Pontin’s approach to packaging their accommodation (into three night weekends and four night mid-week deals) makes it possible to offer a third night for very little extra cost. The standard of accommodation and especially the food at Pontin’s has received very favourable comment this year, so their type of accommodation seems to suit the Event very well. It has been suggested by several Wingers that this type of accommodation would be suitable for other large GoldWing events too, so there is food for thought there.

Most of the extra programme items which were laid on for Wingers for the Sunday at Pontin’s were also popular enough to try to retain for the future. Some elements of the Ladies Programme did not prove to be commercially viable for the suppliers who laid them on, so some of that might have to be trimmed back. In the main however the format of the longer weekend was successful and those who stayed for Sunday night entertainment were very complementary about it; Pontin’s Bluecoats showed us that they are very capable entertainers and they gave us a very professional and thoroughly enjoyable show. The Lighting Workshop didn’t happen quite as planned; although indoor space to work on bikes was available throughout the weekend there turned out to be surprisingly little demand for it and the Lighting Sales stall soon shifted itself to St Chads. The lovely weather encouraged everyone to spend as much time as possible outdoors and maybe this facility would come into its own if the weather was not quite so good. Nevertheless the idea of a Lighting Workshop and Sales area at Pontin’s, although still potentially a good one, needs to go back to the drawing board if it is to be tried again.

Setting dates for the Light Parade involves inevitable compromise and for 2008 we tried running the Event three weeks later than in previous years as an experiment. This is something we wanted to try anyway but as things turned out we could not have scheduled the BLP any earlier in 2008 anyway because St Chads Headland was committed to another event. It turned out to be touch and got getting the Headland cleared away in time for us to take possession of it for our Event – the contractors had to remove several marquees and 4,000 tons of beach sand in only three days, which incredibly they achieved. On the positive side, having that other event on the Headland immediately before ours is why we got enclosure fencing; we just took over what had been set up for the previous event and therefore saved considerably on fencing costs. An enclosure fence and an overnight security guard on Friday and Saturday proved its worth and would be essential again if an ambitious Promenade display such as we mounted for 2008 is to be attempted again.

Another important factor in setting the dates for the Light Parade is traffic volumes through the Illuminations. Surprisingly, Illuminations traffic is always quietest on the Switch-On Weekend, which is usually the first weekend in September, and it get steadily busier over following weekends. The Police are very keen on us running the Parade on the Switch-On Weekend for this reason. Pontin’s on the other hand were probably very pleased to see us scheduling the event three weeks later in 2008 and outside the school holidays, and this is probably why we ended up more or less having the place to ourselves this year. 2008 has been an unusually quiet season for Blackpool, including for Pontin’s. Weather is a risk factor at any time in UK, so we would need a wet weather plan no matter how much early in the year we planned to run the Event.

HondaUK were extremely generous in supporting the 2008 Light Parade in the way they did and although the two Honda Dealers who came are keen to come again, it would not be realistic to expect the Manufacturer to commit the same level of support to the BLP on a recurring basis. Apart from anything else their other motorcycle owners clubs would start complaining that they weren’t getting a fair crack at the whip. A one-day Promenade display which does not require elaborate set up (i.e. does not require setting up stands on the previous day and therefore fencing and overnight security) would therefore be a lot more achievable.