The winter lights in York will be twinkling for longer than ever this year.
The York BID (Business Improvement District) has revealed plans to bring a sparkle to the city for more than four months.
In the past, the winter lights – including illuminating York’s bar gateways – have come on to coincide with the Christmas lights at the start of the festive market in mid-November.
And while the Christmas lights were turned off early in January, the winter lights stayed on until February.
However, this year’s switch-on will be much earlier – on 1 October.
Operations manager at the BID Carl Alsop revealed the change at the launch of York’s Christmas events at Manahatta on Little Stonegate on Wednesday night.
He told YorkMix: “As before, the Christmas lights will come out in January and the winter lights will stay up for February.
“But we’re also going to start a little bit earlier.
“So from 1 October, you’ll see all the trees on Parliament Street wrapped with some really great lighting products that can change colour and change pattern. You’ll see that come to life.”
And these lights will change colours and patterns to mark seasonal events, Carl said.
“So you can expect your oranges and your greens for for Halloween. We’ll probably do a static red for Remembrance Day to be very respectful.
“For Bonfire Night there will be all sorts of fireworks patterns going off.”
The Christmas lights are being extended again this year.
“So last year, we changed the Christmas lights and we added quite a number of streets,” Carl said.
“This year, we’re adding Walmgate as well. There’s already lights on Walmgate Bar and down at the bottom end of the street. But this year, they’re going to extend from Fossgate down past the businesses of Walmgate.”