Families enjoy opening night of Sunderland's Festival of Light as illuminations return to the city

After being cancelled last year due to the pandemic, the Festival of Light has returned to Sunderland with families from across the North East coming out to enjoy the opening night of the illuminations.

The yearly festival, which has been running since 1936, started Thursday, October 14, and will run every Thursday - Sunday until November 13.

The festival returned to Roker Park for the first time since 2018 after moving to the city centre before the pandemic and families who enjoyed the opening night support the move.

Justin Collins, who attended the festival with his wife and grandson said: “I think it’s really good. We saw it advertised so we decided to bring our grandson with us and he’s really enjoying it. I think Roker Park is a much better location out on the seafront, it’s a little bit bigger and has more space to walk around.”

The festival featured the return of some familiar attractions as well as the debut of some new lights, which were crowd pleasers for plenty of families.

John Parker, who attended with his wife and three children said: “I think the illuminations are great, we’re loving it. We’ve really liked the dinosaurs and we come every year and the kids always like it.”

Nick Loughlin who went along with his family added: “We’re all enjoying it and seems to be getting better every year.”

Related: 18 sparkling pictures from Sunderland’s Festival of Light preview night

As well as woodland and Halloween attractions, some of the lights even got families into an early Christmas spirit.

Robyn Simpson said: “It’s beautiful and really clever. It gets me in the Christmas spirit! I advise everyone to come along.”

Tickets are available from the My Sunderland website and are £3, although group discounts are available and children under two can enter for free.

Tickets can also be bought at Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens and unlike previous years, you cannot buy tickets from the event site at Roker Park.

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