As the snow fell on Thursday morning I was not alone in feeling trepidation for the big ‘Looe Lights Up’ event the following evening.

Fortunately it went away almost as quickly as it came and by Friday the weather was clear and dry yet cold enough to warrant thermals and layers.

I arrived at West Looe Quay to find the fire officers busily setting up their burger stand, the LTC Library ladies had their mulled wine brewing and the lovely Gina and Gill from Hannafore Kiosk presented a cake display worthy of ‘bake off!’

As I started to set up our equipment it became clear there were going to be many hundreds of revellers joining us and certainly the decision to link a third PA speaker outside the official marquee was well received by the overspill crowd surrounding the food and drink stations.

As the lantern parade arrived along the Quay, followed by the St Pinnock Band, the scene was set for Carol singing and a special performance by the Looe Primary Performing Arts children plus a seasonal service by the Rev Ben Morgan-Lundie.

‘Rev Ben’ as he is fondly known, assisted our ‘Parade Royalty’ children in pressing the big read button to light up the town, with bright displays running along the quaysides and public areas, to loud cheers and applause.

As the huge crowd rocked to classic Xmas hits Santa arrived on the impressively decorated Looe Land Train to the excitement of children of all ages.

The atmosphere was, as we’d hoped, even more joyous than previous years’ but, of course, not so as next year’s Lights Up!

A great night continued in East Looe as Santa was ferried across the harbour to the Rose Garden where he posed for pics and where the lovely Juliette entertained with her singing and music.

Many local shops had stayed open late for the occasion.

A special night such as this always takes a lot more planning and effort than is obvious and, as such, Lynda and Karen and their team of volunteers from LTC, Tina’s Harbour Team, The Looe Lions and many more are to be congratulated on a really well-organised event.

At the end of the evening, as stalls dismantled, we packed our speakers, lights, stands, mixer and many, many leads into the car and ferried them straight over to the Liskeard Radio Studio where they will be needed, once again, for this weekend’s ‘Cornish Christmas’ celebrations on Saturday 9th December........

The day will kick off with at 11.30am in Fore Street with festive music, singing, chestnuts roasting on an open fire, a stilt walker, juggler, bell ringing and maybe an appearance by Elsa and Spider Man!!

And, talking of making an appearance, a very special, white-bearded, man will be at The Fat Frog Coffee Shop in Market Street from 11am where, for just five pounds, children will meet Santa, have a present, a milkshake and raffle ticket.

Details of the many other early events are available on the Visit Liskeard website and social media pages.

The Liskeard Radio Team will be setting up outside Webbs House in the late afternoon for an evening of entertainment supporting all the other contributors and leading up to the big ‘switch-on’ at around 6.10pm!

There will then be a fabulous fireworks display (earplugs available) courtesy of Liskeard Traders followed by carol singing and many other events, indeed there’s really far too much going on for me to cover here so, for a full outline of the day and evening, go to the Visit Liskeard website and I’ll be reporting on the festivities next week.

And finally, don’t forget, the parking discount scheme is still running through to the new year.