Banbury’s Christmas Lights are on!

29/11/2021

Hundreds of people turned out to see the town’s new lights switched on

Christmas came to Banbury in traditional fashion yesterday (November 28) when the town’s much-adored street lights were switched on by mayor Shaida Hussain and local hero Prabhu Natarajan.

The brand new state-of-the-art lights were purchased by Banbury Town Council and replace previous illuminations which were over ten years old.   The theme of the new scheme extends around the town and seamlessly into the Castle Quay Shopping Centre.

Hundreds of people turned out for the switch-on event.   They were rewarded with a fun day and seasonal snow showers.   The 5pm switch-on followed an afternoon of fairground rides, food stalls and stage entertainment with a fireworks finale.

Prabhu Natarajan was accompanied on stage by wife Shilpa and six-year-old son Addhu – and with Cllr Hussain they pressed the ‘lights on’ button.

Prabhu was nominated for an ‘unsung hero’ award by local residents after delivering thousands of food parcels to families during the Covid pandemic. He took grocery packages to needy families during the lockdown and spent over £400 of his own money in addition to funds raised by neighbours and well-wishers.

Cllr Hussain said: “The Christmas lights switch-on is one of the highlights of my mayoral year and I don’t mind the cold weather. Prabhu is the perfect ‘local hero’ to have the honour of pressing the magic button.”

Prabhu added: “We moved to Banbury in March 2020 and we have fallen in love with the town and its people. Being asked to switch on the Christmas lights is very special for my family and me.”

The event was organised by Banbury Town Council.   Until very recently it hadn’t been decided on the scale of the day due to the on-going pandemic, making the organisation quite a task for the council’s new Events Manager Toby Russell, who has only been in post for just over three weeks.   Mr Russell said: “This has been a very full-on three-and-a-half weeks.   It started as a very small switch-on event on the steps of the town hall and its grown and grown every day as I’ve managed to add something else.

“It’s a big credit to everybody that has been able to come and support us at short notice.   I’m really excited to get it back up to its normal scale and size in 2022.”

Stewart Green and Ian Fleming from Banbury United’s radio station Puritans Radio introduced the stage entertainment which included the North Oxfordshire Academy Band, Avocet Theatre Company and the Rock Choir.

The lights will now stay on until midnight on January 5.

See all our pictures here. Click any image to view it full screen.


Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam

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