Fire festival sparkles as Christmas countdown starts in Rochdale

The countdown to Christmas started on Sunday with thousands of people attending Ignite Fire Festival and the Christmas Lights Switch-On at Rochdale Town Hall.

More than 5,000 people enjoyed the council-organised event, which included the fire festival, leading up to the big switch-on at the town hall.   

Ignite transformed the gardens opposite Rochdale Town Hall with a trail of fire and lights along with live entertainment. The event, sponsored by car supermarket The Trade Centre UK featured displays, blazing sculptures and illuminated installations from multi-award-winning outdoor arts specialists Walk the Plank. Visitors walked through bubbling goblets of fire, flaming flowers, and sculptures that erupted with fire. In addition to the displays there were performances from Flame Oz – a fire dancing and juggling show, and Liverpool’s Bring the Fire Project. Street theatre and interactive arts group Travelling Light Circus also performed.  

Drum Machine - a 20-strong drumming collective and Astro Aliens – a quirky trio of cosmic beings, were an eye-catching sight on The Esplanade. There were performances from local favourites Skylight Circus Arts including ‘Fireflies,’ their new community fire spinning group.  

Hot food, mulled wine and other festive treats were served and Middleton Arena’s Sleeping Beauty Christmas pantomime star Castle Clown (Chris Johnson) introduced proceedings alongside Princess Beauty (Lauren McCrory). They both led festive sing-alongs before the mayor, Councillor Shakil Ahmed, greeted the audience and introduced Father Christmas himself. Special guests Falinge Park High School pupils Ruhani Hussain, Hamza Ali and Haris Mahmood, took to the stage to wish everyone a happy Christmas before flicking the switch and turning on the lights. 

Originally intended to run over three days, due to the freezing and wet weather, Friday and Saturday’s Ignite Fire Festival was cancelled as Storm Bert caused disruption across the country.  

The Mayor said: “It was amazing to see so many people coming out after the poor weather we had. Seeing the fire, lights and the countdown to Christmas begin was wonderful. The fire festival really made it a unique event. The mayoress, consort and I wish you all a merry Christmas and hope to see everyone back in Rochdale town centre over the coming weeks.”  

Lots of visitors took to social media to praise the event with comments including, “magical and spectacular, such a winter warmer”, “fanastic night”, “brilliant line-up, awesome crowd”, “what a turn out”, “fabulous,” “a really lovely night” and “a very well organised event bringing entertainment and joy as well as a boost to local economy.”   

Councillor Sue Smith, cabinet member for communities and co-operation said: “Thankfully we were able to go ahead on Sunday and it was a very busy evening with a fantastic atmosphere. I want to thank the performers, partners, staff, crew, volunteers and our sponsor The Trade Centre UK for helping put it all together.”   

Mark Bailey, founder and owner of Trade Centre UK, added: “We were so pleased to support this event for the first time, bringing a wonderful evening of entertainment to thousands of families. Our partnership with Ignite Fire Festival and the Rochdale Christmas Lights Switch On was a fantastic opportunity to give back to a community that has welcomed us so warmly. You can see by the size of the crowds how much this event means to people and we were proud to be part of it.”  

Ignite was organised by Rochdale Borough Council in partnership with Walk the Plank and Culture Co-op, a ‘Creative People and Places’ programme, funded by Arts Council England.    

You can find out more about other festive events and other useful information for the season at rochdale.gov.uk/christmas  

The council also financially supported popular switch-on events in Littleborough, Heywood and Middleton.