Seasonal light show is a first for Barnsley

Barnsley Bright Nights runs for only four days, with a series of light projections which effectively use the front of the town hall as a giant screen to project moving images.

Other areas of the town, including Mandela Gardens, the Cooper Gallery and St Mary's Church also feature similar light based attractions, which will come to an end on Saturday (December 1), allowing the focus to switch to the traditional lights.

Expert firm Anomic Multimedia '“ which achieved international attention with its projections on the Tower of London for World War One centenary events '“ has worked on the attraction.

Barnsley Council has been working to coax more people into the town centre to support its redevelopment and the launch event attracted a large crowd outside the town hall.

Dan Shorten of Anomic Multimedia said: ''It is clearly an exciting time in Barnsley with the redevelopment of the town centre and markets, and to be able to help celebrate this transformation with a projection artwork that will highlight both the strong history of the town but also the positive future is a real honour for us.

'The town hall in Barnsley is such a striking building; the facade is both elegant and dramatic and will lend itself very well to projections. We feel extremely lucky to be involved in this project and can't wait to light up the town hall for the people of Barnsley and its visitors.'

Barnsley Bright Nights will culminate on Saturday with a light parade through the town centre.

Meanwhile, in Rotherham a host of festive events have been put together, including performances of Dick Whittington which start on Friday (November 30) at the Civic Theatre, with a Festival of Angels at Clifton Park on Saturday from 10.30am to 3.30pm. A Christmas fayre at the park follows on Sunday, from 10am to 4pm, with a Santa dash race at noon.

Father Christmas will be at Riverside Library on Tuesday December 11 for an hour from 4pm, with another appearance two days later.