Award-winning Yorkshire Wildlife Park to create a dazzling Christmas this year with spectacular light and lantern festival.

A million lights bulbs and LED lights will transform the park for the first time ever into a Winter wonderland featuring 42 different displays with 1,000 individual lanterns.  

The immersive light installations and interactive exhibits will be the largest ever in Yorkshire and will amaze visitors along a 2,400 metre trail at the innovative park.

“We are incredibly excited to have the delight of hosting Winter Illuminations this year” said John Minion, CEO of the park at Branton, near Doncaster. “Visitors will be overwhelmed by these giant displays. They truly are breathtaking.  

“The displays will install the magic of Christmas for our visitors here at the park and we can’t wait for everyone to see it.” 

The spectacular light show, created by Lightopia which has exhibited in the US and venues around the world, will include giant lanterns depicting some of the 400 animals that live at the 150-acre park. The majority of the lanterns are currently being shipped to Doncaster from their most recent show in New York. 

The amazing light show will feature a dinosaur lantern, light-up animals, a giant interactive piano keyboard, step-on light pads, immersive rainbow lights and many other light creations.  

The enchanting routes have been designed with the safety of friends and family in mind with advanced booking only and limited numbers of people on site with 15-minute timed entry slots to maintain social distancing. 

Children and adults will enjoy a kaleidoscope of colour with magical sculptures and tunnels of light as they stroll around 2.4 km of trails that have been designed to ensure a magical and safe experience. 

It will take a team of 20 experts and 30 days to create the magical atmosphere at the park. The experience will be enhanced by delicious festive food and drink for all the family to enjoy and get in the spirit of Christmas. 

The evening festivities will be open to the public from 4.00pm until 9.00pm on 44 selected dates from November through Christmas and into early January. The light and lantern trail is expected to take approximately 90 minutes to complete. 

The park’s animals will not be on view during the evening lantern trail but YWP will be offering daytime bundled tickets to allow visitors to enjoy both a day with the animals and the chance to explore the illuminated trail later on. 

John continued, “Everyone needs something to look forward to at the moment. With our 150-acre outdoor site and established Covid precautions, we are hoping that we will be able to help save Yorkshire’s Christmas with this exciting experience for families to share. We have been amazed at the response as over 25,000 people have already signed up for the ‘early bird’ tickets to the new Winter Illuminations, which are currently discounted at 40% off when you sign up before Monday at midnight”