EVER wondered what goes into the dazzling array of Christmas lights and decorations in Glasgow’s George Square? If you have (and even if you haven’t), the list is as follows:
Ten 12m-high Christmas Tree features on masts; 100 snowflake features (including four different styles of snowflakes); 90 infill panels between the snowflakes; 1,056 flashing lights on the Scott monument; eight natural trees with pealights; eight 3D spiral features on street lighting columns; a 5m high bauble feature; a 17m high Christmas Tree, with no fewer than 20,000 LED lights; one reindeer and sleigh feature; and one crib complete with figures. There are, all told, 300,000 LED lights on the festive attractions in the Square.
Back in 1962 the decorations consisted mainly of four 22ft-high runs of decorative screening in the centre of the square’s large flower beds, carrying an arrangement of drapes of fairy lights and metallic glitter garlanding. Eight smaller Christmas trees with lanterns were grouped around the main 45ft Christmas tree.
Two years later the square featured reindeer and a 30ft-long sleigh, and hundreds of lights and decorations. The Scott monument was draped with red and green glitter garlands and illuminated with red and green lamps and a shimmering canopy of lights.
Throughout the city centre that year, there were 24,000 fairy lights and 4,700 yards of glitter tinsel.
The annual ‘Glasgow Loves Christmas’ lights switch-on has become increasingly popular in recent years, and officially marks the start of the festive period in Glasgow
Seven years ago, in 2012, there were more than 70,000 applications for 14,000 tickets.
Last year, Glasgow Life, which stages the event, received 64,782 unique applications for via an online ballot, requesting a total of 309,422 tickets - enough to fill George Square more than 19 times over.
This year, there were 90,923 unique requests for 434,272 tickets, which equates to two-thirds of the city’s population and a figure which, it’s said, would fill Hampden more than eight times and George Square itself more than 33 times.
Numerous anecdotes surround the Christmas display in George Square; one of the best was related in a book, Jinx Dogs Burns Now Flu, by the well-known Scottish journalist, Alex Gordon, and concerns the time an Evening Times photographer, Jack Middleton, was sent to cover the switch-on.
“Mid was not known for his patience”, Gordon writes. “He was there in plenty of time but unfortunately the hospitality in the City Chambers seemed to be going on a bit too long. An irritated Mid slammed his case down on the raised platform, straight on top of a large button. To rapturous applause the lights burst into life. Mid took his pictures and beat a hasty retreat.”
Read more: Herald Diary
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