Sunderland Festival of Light cancelled for Saturday, November 4

Sunderland's Festival of Light has fallen foul of the weather for a third time.

The event was cancelled on Thursday, October 19, after the arrival of Storm Babet, then again yesterday and today, Thursday and Friday, November 2 and 3, due to Storm Ciaran.

And with Mowbray Park suffering the after-effects of the last two weeks of dreadful weather, leisure chiefs have reluctantly pulled the plug on tomorrow evening, Saturday, November 4.

Coun Peter Walker is Sunderland City Council's Deputy Cabinet Member for Vibrant City.

He said: "Following the extreme rainfall over the past few days, we’ve reluctantly taken the decision to cancel the Festival of Light this Saturday due to the ground conditions on site.

"As always our priority is to protect the health and safety of our visitors and contractors at the same time as preserving ground conditions in the park for future use.

"We also want visitors to enjoy the festival and to come away with happy memories.

"I know it's disappointing, but I hope people will understand given the heavy rain over the last few days, on top of that over the last two weeks.

"We’ll also be keeping an eye on the weather forecast before deciding whether the Festival of Light event will go ahead on Sunday.

"See Tickets will be contacting everyone with tickets for Saturday offering them the choice of a refund or rebooking for another date.

"We apologise for any inconvenience caused and hope to be able to reopen as soon as possible."