Glittering lights, exquisite jewels and cheery live spectaculars are all part of the festive celebrations in Norwich this year, which will feature: more Christmas lights than ever before, stunning Fabergé sculptures, a 4-day Christmas Fair to launch the season's shopping frenzy, and great family shows featuring live music keeping the atmosphere authentic.   

In 2016 thousands flocked to Norwich to experience the UK's first Tunnel of Light when it was unveiled in the heart of the city centre. The 45-meters long, 4 meters high and 6 meters wide tunnel, made from 50,000 pulsating LEDs with sequenced lights that reflected the patterns and colours of the Northern Lights, proved an instant Instagram sensation.

All ages marvelled at the tunnel, which became even more magical as day turned into dusk and dusk turned into night. But how do you improve on perfection? Well, you crown it, and so in 2017 the Tunnel of Light will be back once again, but this year with a new animation sequence and a glittering tiara.

At the world-class Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts a sumptuous exhibition awaits: Royal Fabergé. The world famous jeweller has an amazing local story to tell. See over 70 loans from the Royal Collection – King Edward VII's commissions from the Sandringham Estate - as well as vintage films and photographs; there'll be over 150 loans from private and public collectors across Britain, Russia and America.

Across Norwich, more Christmas lights than any year before will come together to create further magical illusion:

• Half-moon star bursts will adorn lamp posts on the newly re-developed and pedestrianised Westlegate, heading up to John Lewis.

• Decorative nets of twinkling lights will form a canopy over Davey Place, linking with Gentleman's Walk and Castle Meadow as visitors and shoppers head towards one of Norwich's most iconic buildings, Norwich Castle. 

• Queen Street walkway bonds The Norwich Lanes - Norwich's hub for independent shops and eateries – through to Norwich's Cathedral Quarter – possibly the most historic area of the city - with strings of zigzag icicle lights.

• Norwich's Cathedral Quarter also gets a seasonal make-over with star-balls lighting the trees of medieval cobbled Tombland. 

• Finally, passengers alighting at Norwich train station and heading up Prince of Wales Road will be treated to a Christmas lighting scheme for the first time. 

The Christmas lights switch on will take place on 16 November, and after that it's full throttle as the countdown to the Big Day begins. The first large scale event to launch the shopping season in Norwich is the Festive Fair at The Forum. This 4-day Christmas market (24th – 27th November) promises to be an enticing event featuring 50 indoor and outdoor stalls selling East Anglian arts, crafts and produce, perfect for Christmas presents and stocking fillers. There'll also be live music and winter foods for that added touch of festive cheer. The Forum is a perfect venue to host the market, with its huge glass atrium decorated to create a glowing golden aura.  It's a spectacular backdrop in this contemporary glass Millennium building and, with views across to the Tunnel of Light and Norwich's largest medieval church – St Peter Mancroft, there's a lot to experience. 

Two Christmas shows to keep all ages and generations happy will be: A Christmas Carol - the musical (20 December – 31 December), an immersive and humorous performance from Planet Theatre Productions, and the Theatre Royal Norwich's annual pantomime, which this year presents the classic tale of Sleeping Beauty (13 December – 14 January).  The Theatre Royal is one of the few theatres of its size in the UK to create and produce its own pantomime. Panto stalwart Richard Gauntlett pens and directs the show, as well as starring in it, and is much loved by Norfolk audiences as well as by those from further afield. Unusually for panto, there is also a live six-piece band playing specially arranged music which adds greatly to the atmosphere.

Melanie Cook, PR Manager at VisitNorwich, says; “Norwich is an exciting and diverse UK city to visit throughout the year – for day trips and overnight stays - but at Christmas, with the additional lights scheme, it gets even better. Expect a non-stop programme of live festive events, performances, music, in-store entertainment and cultural activities. Add to that the fact that Norwich is a compact city to walk around, with fantastic shopping with high street brands and a high proportion of one-off independent shops, plus its thriving café and restaurant culture, and you have an all-round Christmas experience to rival other, much larger, cities in the country.”    

Preliminary Launch Events for Christmas in Norwich

Tunnel of Light
Hay Hill
Thursday 16 November - Friday 5th January 2017 
http://www.visitnorwich.co.uk/whats-happening/event/festive-fair-at-the-forum/

The Tunnel of Light returns to Norwich this Christmas, and this time adorned with a new animation sequence and glittering tiara!  Don't miss the chance to see this magical sight and bag yourself the best selfie in town!   

Festive Fair at The Forum
Friday 24 November – Monday 27 November 2017, free entry
10am to 5pm on Friday 24th, Saturday 25th and Monday 27th November, and from 11am to 4pm on Sunday 26th.
http://www.visitnorwich.co.uk/whats-happening/event/festive-fair-at-the-forum/

The city's first Christmas market of 2017! This enticing event will feature a host of indoor and outdoor stalls selling East Anglian arts, crafts and produce, perfect for Christmas presents and stocking fillers. Held over the last weekend of November, this Festive Fair is the ideal place to stock up on gorgeous Christmas gifts. There will be over 50 stalls selling everything from contemporary jewellery, pretty pottery, elegant glassware and wonderful woodwork, to interesting prints, paintings and cards, colourful tins and textiles, some fabulous festive plants and much more. There will also be some wonderful winter produce - such as home-made sweets, mince pies, cheese, preserves and so on - as well as a series of festive food and drink stations outside the building.

Over the four days there will be plenty of seasonal music from The Pavilion Quintet, a popular Norfolk-based brass band who'll be playing Christmas carols, to a fabulous festive choir or two.

Performance

Sleeping Beauty
Theatre Royal Norwich
Wednesday 13 December 2017 – Sunday 14 January 2018
http://www.visitnorwich.co.uk/whats-happening/event/sleeping-beauty/

The Theatre Royal is one of the few theatres of its size in the UK to create and produce its own panto, and the same creative team has worked on it for many years, taking a lot of pride in making it the very best it can be. Panto stalwart Richard Gauntlett pens and directs the show, as well as starring in it, and is much loved by Norfolk audiences. Unusually for panto, there is also a live six-piece band playing specially arranged music, which adds greatly to the atmosphere.

A Christmas Carol - the musical
Daynes Sports Centre, St Faiths Lane, Tombland, Norwich. (Part of Norwich School)
Wednesday  20 –  Sunday 31st December 2017 with a range of shows at 2.30, 7.30 and a couple at 5pm.
On 23rd December there will be a Victorian Father Christmas from 12.30 – 2pm
http://bit.ly/2vKYPNe.

Enjoy an energetic, immersive experience with a live band at this family-friendly production featuring music, dance and drama whilst soaking up a traditional Dickens story with all the trimmings, making it a must-see production. 

The show is brought to Norwich by amateur group Planet Theatre Productions under the direction of Peter Beck and producer David Rees, after the sell out success of Return to the Forbidden Planet in 2016 and The Producers by Mel Brooks in 2017.

Music by Alan Menkin, Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, Book by Mike Ockrent and Lynn Ahrens.

Culture

The Russian Season at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
closes Sunday 11 February 2018 (opened 14 October 2017)
http://scva.ac.uk/art-and-artists/exhibitions/the-russia-season

Royal Fabergé

This exhibition will trace the story of one of the world's most exquisite jewellery workshops and reveal how the creativity of Fabergé came to extend from St. Petersburg and the court of the Romanovs to a dairy on Norfolk's Sandringham Estate. In 1907, Edward VII commissioned Peter Carl Fabergé to produce portrait sculptures of dogs and horses at Sandringham as a gift for Queen Alexandra. The project was soon extended to cover all the Norfolk estate's wild farm and pet animals. The best sculptors were sent from St. Petersburg to Sandringham to make wax models of the animals which were taken to Russia to be rendered in hardstones, gemstones, gold, silver and platinum as directed by Fabergé himself. More than 100 sculptures are known, most now in the Royal Collection.

The loans from the Royal Collection will be the centrepiece of the exhibition but the wider story of Fabergé will be told with major loans from private and public collections in Britain, Russia and America. Over 150 works, including vintage films and photographs, will illuminate the extraordinary skills of the Fabergé craftsmen who created glorious enamelled and bejewelled plants set in rock crystal vases, as well as the famous Fabergé eggs and other royal gifts.
 
Radical Russia

'Radical Russia' will show how the avant-garde succeeded in transforming Russian art and culture in the 20th century, well before the Revolution of 1917. The exhibition will include paintings, sculpture, books, ceramics, furniture, games, costume and objects relating to everything from theatre to architecture and urban planning, spanning the period 1905 to 1930. Highlights will include suprematist paintings by Malevich, designs by El Lissitzky and Tatlin, and ceramics from a number of countries.

Rembrandt: Lightening the Darkness
Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery
Castle Meadow, Norwich, NR1 3JU
Saturday 21 Oct 2017 – Sunday 7 Jan 2018
www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk/ 

Featuring the nationally important collection of Rembrandt etchings held by Norfolk Museums Service this exhibition showcases Rembrandt's explorations of light and darkness, through selected loans from the National Gallery, the Royal Collection, the British Museum and the National Galleries of Scotland,  together with the Castle's extraordinary collection of 93 etchings by the great artist.

One of the world's most renowned and innovative printmakers, Rembrandt's handling of light and shadow - expressed purely through the medium of lines and the space around them – was unsurpassed. During his lifetime, Rembrandt was as famed for his prints as for his oil paintings, being better known in Britain as a printmaker. This exhibition will highlight this lesser known aspect of his output. Rembrandt: Lightening the Darkness will compare prints with a selected group of paintings and drawings, to show how physical and metaphorical light and darkness meet and combine in Rembrandt's work in all media, creating narratives that communicate to the viewer.

Notes to editors

For images and further information please contact Melanie Cook PR manager, 01603 727939 melanie.cook@visitnorwich.co.uk. 

·                     VisitNorwich is the destination management organisation for the Norwich area and is the tourism destination marketing function of Norwich Business Improvement District - www.visitnorwich.co.uk and www.cityofstories.co.uk. 

·                     Norwich BID is a not for profit company limited by guarantee funded by a levy on its member businesses.

·                     VisitNorwich is a discreet membership organisation within Norwich BID and its activities are funded by members, public sector stakeholders, including Norwich City Council and South Norfolk Council, and directly by Norwich BID.

·                      VisitNorwich's sole focus is to promote and develop the destination and support its members through collaborative marketing, research, information and business advice.

·                     Total value of tourism in Norwich is £703,601,515 (Destination Research: Economic Impact of Tourism report 2015).

·                     In 2016 Norwich BID launched a unique Christmas offer in Norwich which included the Tunnel of Light - a UK first. This led to a 2.5% increase in footfall compared to the same period in 2015.

·                     In 2016 VisitNorwich launched a series of short Norwich, the city of stories films for digital channels - viewed over 75,000 times.

·                     In 2014 VisitNorwich - funded by the Norwich Business Improvement District -launched Norwich, the City of Stories a digital campaign which reached finalist status in the EDP Norfolk Tourism Awards 2015.

·                     In 2014 Norwich was named as one of Britain's Top 10 cities in The Telegraph Travel Awards.

·                     In 2014 The Norwich Lanes was crowned Great British High Street of the Year in the city category.

·                     The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts was one of the six finalists for the prestigious Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year 2014.

·                     In 2012 Norwich became England's first UNESCO City of Literature. This accolade is a permanent status.

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