Origins of the Light Parade

GoldWing motorcycles are nothing if not visually commanding and displaying them, i.e. showing them off, has been a popular aspect of owning them since they first appeared in UK in the late 1970s.

And it didn’t take long for some owners to want to make their GoldWings even more visually impressive after dark by adding display lighting.  And in recent years, especially since multi-coloured LED lighting became available, interest in displaying GoldWings by means of Light Parades after dark has really taken off.

But back in 2002 the idea of riding GoldWings which were themselves illuminated with coloured lights was still to be thought up.  But a few GoldWing riders in Lancashire, where the Blackpool Illuminations has been an attraction for generations, began talking about riding their bikes through the Illuminations at Blackpool as an organised group.

GoldWing owners had ridden through the Illuminations before in small groups of two or three bikes, but on an evening in September 2002 a somewhat larger group rode through the Illuminations together.

The impact of this group of GoldWings, still relatively small by what has happened since those early days, on Blackpool’s Illuminations visitors, as they saw the GoldWings riding past, was nothing less than remarkable.  The crowds stopped, turned and stared – and then cheered and waved.  The magical combination of Blackpool’s spectacular Illuminations, the crowds of visitors to Blackpool which they attract and a parade of GoldWing motorcycles had been discovered.

And so the idea of an organised, annual GoldWing Light Parade through Blackpool Illuminations was born.  Bob Summers, now recognised as the founder of the GoldWing Light Parade, and the friends who rode with him, were members of a local Region, Lancs & Lakes, of the GoldWing Owners Club.  So the following year they invited riders from other Regions in their Club to join them.

The first Blackpool Illuminations GoldWing Light Parade to be organised as a club event took place in 2003 and attracted 43 GoldWings including many who had travelled to Blackpool from several other Regions, so from several parts of the Country.  There were GoldWings of all models, including several 3-wheel trikes and at least one sidecar combination outfit.  It was a remarkable expression of initial interest in what has since become a very popular way of displaying GoldWings.

The success of the first event prompted the Organisers (mostly Bob, although he did have help) to repeat the Event annually and the number of bikes attending increased rapidly.  In 2004 there were 104 GoldWings in the Parade from all over Great Britain and Northern Ireland, providing what was by anyone’s standards an unprecedented spectacle.

Somewhere along the way a public display of GoldWings, parked in lines along the Promenade, was added for the afternoon before the Parade and money was collected for charity.

In 2005 over 300 GoldWings took part, watched by thousands of fascinated Illuminations Visitors.  By 2006 members of the public had started timing their visit to the Blackpool Illuminations to see the GoldWing Light Parade and the Parade was again hugely successful.  Despite the weather, which threatened to put a real dampener on things (there were gales and floods on the morning of the Parade) it brightened up and an estimated 400 GoldWings took part.

In 2007, the Light Parade was in its 5th year and was by now a “recognised” national Event of the Owners Club, although it was still organised entirely by members of the same local Region.  To celebrate what by now become a renowned annual GoldWing Event in UK,  the phrase “Pose on the Prom”, which had caught on as the Event’s sub-title, was adopted permanently.  Regalia bearing this catch phrase was sold; everything from badges to t-shirts and even bomber jackets.

For 2008 ambitious plans were made by the Organisers, still all members of the local Region of the GoldWing Owners Club, to expand the Event still further.  A much more ambitious daytime Promenade Display was organised, supported by HondaUK and other sponsors, including an exihiobtion of skilled riding appearance by the World Champion  Central Florida Motorcycle Drill Team and personal appearances by Honda’s then top racing riders Leon Haslam and Cal Crutchlow, and the legendary Ron Haslam.

Sadly the Organisers felt during their preparations for the 2008 Event that they were not getting the support they hoped for from their Club’s Committee and at the end of that year, along with others in their Region, they decided to form their own, independent GoldWing Club, GoldWings North West.  By this time key members of another Region had also decided to form their own independent Club, GoldWings North Wales.  These two Clubs got together to form a new Federation of UK GoldWing Clubs, under the banner of which the 2009 Blackpool Illuminations GoldWing Light Parade was successfully organised, again with support from Honda.

Organising the event has never been straightforward; there was always a need to be flexible and to adapt to changing availability, for example of space on the Promenade to display the bikes and to muster the Parade.  For 2010 the Organisers were forced by circumstances to look for a new accommodation venue when without warning and only shortly after the 2009 Event, Pontin’s closed their Blackpool Holiday Centre, which was where the Event had been based since the Parade it became a residential social weekend.  Happily the search, although time-consuming,  was successful. The new Venue offers opportunities for new developments, both for 2010 and into the future; it takes the Event properly into Blackpool and into properly Blackpool accommodation.

As the result of the success of the original, Blackpool GoldWing Light Parade, GoldWing Light Parades are being held, small and not so small, organised and ad hoc, in various parts of UK, including annually at Scarborough and a new one for 2010 in Norfolk.

But the original, brightest and best GoldWing Light Paarde happens in September each year through the Blackpool Illuminations.  If you ride a GoldWing and would like to ride it through mile after mile of spectacular Illuminations, past crowds of thousands of cheering people, Blackpool is the place to come to.

For further detail about previous GoldWing Light Parades, including a huge gallery of photographs and videos, please visit other parts of the History section of this Website.