Beautiful Belle helps lead the way for fairytale Christmas parade

BEAUTIFUL Belle and the Beast, light-up reindeers and winter wonderland magical giant birds will be joining a cast of hundreds for this year’s Swansea city centre Christmas Parade.

November 17 promises to be an unforgettable evening for city youngsters as storybook characters come to life to tell tales of light and magic.

The princess carriage, characters from the much-loved musical Frozen plus a cast of hundreds of community volunteers will all be taking to city centre streets as the curtain goes up for the Christmas countdown.

Robert Francis-Davies, Cabinet Member for investment, regeneration and tourism, said: “It’s Swansea’s 50th anniversary year and we’re aiming to create a real carnival atmosphere full of light, music, dancing and featuring everyone’s favourite fairy tale and movie characters.

“Christmas is one of the most important times of the year for the city centre and the Christmas parade coupled with Santa’s arrival and the lights switch-on is just the right kind of curtain-raiser to get people in the festive mood.”

Joining the parade will be the return of Spark! A street theatre show from 2017 which will be combining a high-impact drumming routine with kaleidoscopic lighting design. There’ll be giant light-up reindeers that seem to float in the air and magical Winter Wonderland Birds, whose moods change with the lights and music.

There’ll also be special appearances from Swansea Pipe Band, Loughor Town Band, a range of children’s TV characters, festive roller skaters, Christmas hover boarders and a special appearance by characters from this year’s Grand Theatre panto, Peter Pan.

Swansea’s 2019 Christmas Parade and Lights Switch-on will take place from 5 pm on November 17.

The route will start at Wind Street before heading up Castle Street and High Street, into Alexandra Road, down Orchard Street and along The Kingsway.

To find out more go to visitswanseabay.com/parade