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Oldham's winter skyline will be redrawn next February when the Illuminate Light Night festival returns, bringing projection shows and light trails that the council says are normally associated with Blackpool's seafront to the town centre streets.

The free event, confirmed on 9 February, follows two years of smaller pilots and is timed to brighten the post-Christmas lull. Traders on Yorkshire Street and the Spindles precinct have been told to expect road closures from 5 pm on the night so that artworks can be rigged on shop fronts and the library façade.

While the lights switch-on is still months away, memories of last December's ceremony remain fresh. Photographers have published crowd shots from 20 November 2024 that show Bluey, the children's TV character, and Coronation Street actor Peter Rush sharing the stage with the mayor, and residents are still tagging themselves in the online albums.

Entertainment bookings for 2026 are already stacking up. Katie Price will make her first Oldham panto appearance over Easter next year, reprising the role she first performed at her own wedding reception, and box-office staff say advance sales have outpaced any previous spring show.

Culture bosses hope the combined draw of the panto and the light festival will repay a recent £168,000 capital grant awarded to Northmoor Library, which is being rewired and repainted so it can serve as a daytime hub during the Illuminate weekend.