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Blackpool’s population was approximately 141,000 in 2021 according to census figures – a fall of 0.7 per cent from the 2011 census. It is one of five North West local authority areas to have recorded a fall in this period, during which the figure for England as a whole rose by 6.6 per cent. Blackpool is the third most densely populated local authority in the North West, with 4,046 people per square kilometre, compared with 4,773 in Manchester and 4,347 in Liverpool.

The median age between 2011 and 2021 rose from 42 to 43 years of age, against an English average of 40 years. The number of people aged 50 to 64 years rose by around 3,500 (an increase of 12.6 per cent), while the number of residents between 35 and 49 years fell by around 5,300 (17.5 per cent decrease).

Around 123,100 Blackpool residents said they were born in England in the 2021 census – 87.3 per cent of the local population. Some 4,700 residents said they were born in Scotland, the next most represented country, with 2,300 people reporting they were born in Poland – 1.6 per cent of the population. In the 2021 census, 94.7 per cent of people in Blackpool identified their ethnic group within the ‘White’ category (compared with 96.7 per cent in 2011), while 1.6 per cent identified their ethnic group within the ‘Mixed or Multiple’ category. In the same census 2.6 per cent of Blackpool residents identified their ethnic group within the ‘Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh’ category, up from 1.6 per cent in 2011.

In 2021, 41.0 per cent of Blackpool residents reported having ‘No religion’, up from 24.5 pert cent in 2011. Across England the percentage increased from 24.8 per cent to 36.7 per cent. However, because the census question about religion was voluntary and has varying response rates, the ONS warns that ‘caution is needed when comparing figures between different areas or between censuses’.

According to the 2021 census, 49.5 per cent of residents aged 16 years and over were employed (excluding full-time students, with 3.8 per cent unemployed (a drop from 5.4 per cent in 2011). The proportion of retired residents was 23.8 per cent. Just over a tenth of people aged 16 and over worked 15 hours or less a week.

Blackpool had the North West's largest percentage-point rise in the proportion of privately-rented homes (from 26.1 per cent in 2011 to 31.8 per cent in 2021) behind Salford. In 2021, 57.5 per cent of Blackpool households owned their own home outright or with a mortgage or loan, while 10.3 per cent lived in social housing.

In 2021, 15 per cent of Blackpool households included a couple but no children, 13.5 per cent included a couple with dependent children and 22.8 per cent were one-person households. Among adults, 40.9 per cent had never married nor registered a civil partnership, while 36 per cent were married or in a civil partnership.

Those residents describing their health as ‘very good’ in 2021 rose to 40.9 per cent, while 33.7 per cent said it was ‘good’. The proportion of residents describing their health as ‘very bad’ was 2.1 per cent (similar to 2011), while those in ‘bad’ health fell from 7.3 per cent to 6.7 per cent. The ONS said that because the census was conducted during the coronavirus, ‘this may have influenced how people perceived and rated their health’.

In 2021, 12.0 per cent of residents were identified as being disabled and limited a lot, 12.7 per cent as disabled and limited a little. The proportion of people aged five years and over providing between 20 and 49 hours of weekly unpaid care rose from 1.9 per cent in 2011 to 2.7 per cent.

Blackpool’s population is forecast to rise slightly to 141,500 by 2044, with the 45-64-year-old group showing the greatest decrease. The number of residents over 65 years old is projected to rise to almost 36,000, making up 26 per cent of the total population.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/censusareachanges/E06000009/

https://www.blackpooljsna.org.uk/Blackpool-Profile/Population.aspx

https://www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/censusareachanges/E06000009/

https://www.blackpooljsna.org.uk/Blackpool-Profile/Population.aspx

Culture

Intro

Art

Blackpool School of Arts

Blackpool School of Arts, part of Blackpool and the Fylde College, opened in 1937 on Park Road in a building designed by civic architect JC Robinson. The building houses a gallery space which hosts a range of exhibitions. Alumni visual artists include Jeffrey Hammond, Adrian Wilson, Sarah Myerscough, Craig McDean and Garth Gratrix. Plans for a new town centre ‘multiversity’ are set to replace the current Park Road campus in 2026.

The Grundy Art Gallery

The Grundy Art Gallery on Queen Street is operated and supported by Blackpool Council and is an Arts Council EnglandNational Portfolio Organisation. It is a long-standing member of the Contemporary Art Society and holds Museums Accreditation status. Its curator since 2018 is Paulette Brian.

The gallery opened in 1911 and adjoins Blackpool Central Library. The Edwardian baroque building is Grade II listed and was built following a donation of money and a small collection of artworks from brothers Cuthbert and John Grundy who were both artists living in the town. Cuthbert was described at the time as “a leader of the artistic, literary and scientific life of the town”.

In 2017 the Grundy’s collection consisted of 2,315 objects divided into four main areas: fine art, decorative art, modern jewellery and ephemera. The works are displayed as part of temporary exhibitions and represent Victorian oils and watercolours, modern British paintings, contemporary jewellery and video, oriental ivories, ceramics, and photographs and souvenirs of Blackpool. Contemporary artists represented include Craigie Aitchison, Martin Creed, Laura Ford, Gilbert & George and Peter Liversidge.

Other significant British artists represented in the painting collection include Anna Airy, Samuel John ‘Lamorna’ Birch, Stephen Bone, Thomas Sidney Cooper, Frederick William Elwell, Stanhope Alexander Forbes, Patrick Hughes, Augustus Edwin John, Laura Knight, John Linnell, Charles S Ricketts, David Roberts, Charles Spencelayh, Henry Scott Tuke, and Lucy Kemp Welsh.

In 2016 the gallery hosted Neon: The Charged Line, Britain’s “biggest ever survey of neon art” which included pieces by artists including Joseph Kosuth, Tracey Emin and Gavin Turk.

Significant recent exhibitions at the Grundy have included: Grayson Perry: The Vanity of Small Differences (2018), Artist Rooms: Roy Lichtenstein (2019), Artist Rooms: Louise Bourgeois (2023) and Bloomberg New Contemporaries (2023). The Grundy also hosts an annual Open Exhibition.

In 2023 a feasibility study was carried out on extending Central Library and the Grundy Art Gallery into a neighbouring car park. It stated that extending the library and art gallery had the potential to increase visitor numbers by 59,000 per year, including 15,000 additional tourists, and boost annual visitor spend by £860,000. Ellis Williams Architects were appointed to lead the design process. Funding for the project comes from a grant of nearly £6m awarded to Blackpool in July 2022 from the Shared Prosperity Fund – part of the government’s Levelling Up agenda.

Left Coast

Left Coast is an arts organisation that was established in 2013, as part of the UK Creative People and Places Programme. It aims to produce socially-engaged creative and cultural activities in Blackpool and Wyre.

Left Coast projects have included the National Community Lottery funded Real Estates programme which aimed to “decrease social isolation and increase personal and community agency through the development of collaborative arts-based activities in three residential areas of Blackpool and Fleetwood”. Artists were given residencies on local housing association estates to test whether they could become embedded in the community rather than being seen as visitors. An independent evaluation based on findings by UCLan stated that the project "made a real difference to local communities through the use of arts as a catalyst for the development of a sense of confidence and self-worth, developing or rediscovering skills, and increasing social connections.”

Following the publication of a Financial Times article Left Behind: Can anyone save the towns the economy forgot? in 2017, Left Coast commissioned a series of artists to respond to the article with the intention of providing "a nuanced and thoughtful counter position". Photographer Craig Easton photographed the Williams family who he had first met in 1992 for a commission by French newspaper Libération to document the British 'underclass'. His images of the Williams’s “came to symbolise the deprivation that was a legacy of the Conservative government of the day”. Revisiting them for Left Coast, Easton created a project entitled Thatcher’s Children.

Left Coast raised £1.3m towards the Art B&B project from funding sources including the Coastal Communities Fund and Arts Council England, Community Business Fund, Tudor Trust and the Clore Duffield Prize Fund. Opened in 2019, the B&B included 18 different themed rooms curated by UK artists. The Now You See it, Now You Don’t suite was created by artist and writer professor Tim Etchells and the Willy Little suite by artist Mel Brimfield celebrated the career of a fictional entertainer and his performances at The Ocean Hotel – the original name of Art B&B. Despite receiving £73,000 from the government's Culture Recovery Fund during the Covid-19 pandemic, the B&B closed in October 2022 claiming there were not enough future bookings to sustain the business. Left Coast clarified it was no longer involved with the project which had become an independent Community Interest Company.

In 2022 Left Coast opened Wash Your Words: Langdale Library & Laundry Room on social housing estate Mereside. It was designed by Lee Ivett and Ecaterina Stefanescu following conversations with the community about their needs. It provides somewhere for people to wash clothes, read, learn and create art and cost £30,000 to renovate. In January 2023 it was nominated for the RIBA Journal MacEwen Award, celebrating architecture for the common good. Judges praised it for a “joyful design [that] raises expectations of the quality of architecture people should demand of social housing estates, changing the conversation from what people don’t have, to what community asset models should look like from a social, economic and environmental perspective”.

Aunty Social

Established in 2011, Aunty Social is a voluntary-run community arts organisation that aims to give people opportunities to develop their creativity, learn new skills and connect with others through art. It is co-founded and directed by Catherine Mugonyi, a member of the National Lottery Heritage Fund North Committee and former Clore Fellow who advocates for systemic change within the cultural sector to support grassroots organisations.

In 2013 it registered as a Community Interest Company (CIC) and opened Charabanc, a shop selling products made by local artists and designers. Aunty Social runs projects including online arts and culture magazine Blackpool Social Club, the Winter Gardens Film Festival and BFI Film Club, supporting filmmakers aged 12-15.

Local textiles group Knittaz With Attitude is an Aunty Social project which has carried out several yarn bombing projects in public spaces. In 2022 the group responded to reports of sexual harassment recorded by Reclaim Blackpool which maps incidents that take place in public places. Over 20 participants created craftivist works highlighting the precarious safety of women and using methods including cross stitch, crochet, appliqué and embroidery under the banner We’re Sew Done. The pieces were placed in locations plotted on the map before being exhibited in Blackpool Central Library. The exhibition featured in local singer Rae Morris’s video for her single No Woman Is An Island.

To coincide with the Conservative Party’s spring conference held in Blackpool in March 2022, Knittaz With Attitude made the Discomfort Blanket, a patchwork quilt made up of nearly 50 squares that addressed concerns about how Conservative policy making has affected the town, as well as broader political concerns. The patches covered a variety of concerns such as NHS cuts, the Levelling Up agenda, fuel and food poverty, and the hostile environment faced by refugees. Others addressed poor health, low life expectancy, lack of social care, pay gaps and state pension inequality. It was displayed in the window of the organisation’s Charabanc shop, close to the conference centre.

In 2023 Aunty Social relocated and took on a ten-year lease in a council-ownd building in Topping Street, newly renovated using Heritage Action Zone (see regeneration) and Quality Corridors funding. It operates a shop selling local arts and crafts, includes a community darkroom and library and hosts creative sessions including a Queer Craft Club and Heritage Craft Workshops.

The Old Rock Factory

Established in 2011 and named after its former use for the production of Blackpool rock, the Old Rock Factory consists of studios housing printmakers and other artists in Blackpool. Residents include printmaker and painter Suzanne Pinderand its founder, screen printer Robin Ross who brought the building back into use. Ross, a former radio DJ, also founded Sand, Sea and Spray street art festival. Running between 2011 and 2016, the festival featured live street art by international artist produced on walls and billboards in various locations throughout central Blackpool.

Abingdon Studios

Opened in 2014, Abingdon Studios is a contemporary visual art project space and artist studios curated and directed by Garth Gratrix. Gratrix, who has curated the Robert Walters Group UK Young Artist of the Year, champions working-class and queer artists. In 2021 he and artist Harry Clayton-Wright produced We’re Still Here, the first permanent collection of LGBTQIA+ heritage in Blackpool, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Abingdon Studios is a limited company and co-directed by studio members. In 2016 is was named best visual arts venue in Blackpool by The Guardian.

Studio member Tom Ireland became co-director of Abingdon Studios in 2016. Ireland runs his Supercollider curatorial platform from the studios and is the artist behind Blackpool Stands Between Us and Revolution. The illuminated text-based artwork for Blackpool’s civic space is based on a quote by a local businessman to architect Thomas H Mawson in the 1920s to explain the town’s importance to working-class people. In 2020 Tina Dempsey, another resident artist, installed her public artwork Fancie Bench in Blackpool's King's Square and in 2022 a second bench was installed in Edward Street as part of a council-funded project for public artworks. In 2022 resident artists Joseph Doubtfire created the Storytrails: Queercoaster, part of the government-funded Unboxed festival. An augmented reality walking tour, it allowed participants to experience and learn about queer history in Blackpool through fragments of archive footage of news reports and stories collected from locals.

Hive Arts

Co-directed and produced by local artists Dawn Mander and Kate Yates, Hive Arts is a gallery space and grassroots arts collective that hosts regular exhibitions. Exhibitions have included The Art Of Forgery by Peter Sinclair (2022), the GuggenHive open exhibition (2022) and The Air That A Breathe, a group exhibition raising money for the Aspergillosis Trust (2023). In 2022 the gallery hosted an art auction of 250 original paintings, photos and sculptures donated by local artists raising £8,000 to help victims of the Ukraine war.

Tea Amantes

Tea Amantes is a tearoom and gallery run by Anna Paprzycka. Established in 2021 the gallery hosts monthly art exhibitions by local emerging artists. Exhibitions have included The Main Resort, featuring Blackpool street photography, and Golden Energies by Katarzyna Nowak.

Public art

Name of artwork	Description
Medici Lions (and Stanley Park)	A pair of lions modelled on the Medici Lions in Rome stand in Stanley Park. The original lead lions were made in 1790 and sold in 1922 to John Magee who gifted them to Blackpool Corporation. They were removed in 2013 and given on long-term loan to Stowe House Preservation Trust, where they originally stood. Replicas were installed in the park in 2013. Stanley Park also features a number of sculptures in its Italian Gardens, nature-inspired sculptures, and We Love You To The Moon, a stone carving memorial to Jane Tweedle from Blackpool who was killed as in the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017. A statue of Charlie Cairoli was installed in the Rose Garden in 2008 but was later moved to Blackpool Tower after it was vandalised and replaces with a plaque.
Ballet Dancers	Installed in the 1990s and designed by artists Phil Bew and Diane Gorvin, two bronze ballet dancers stand on stainless steel plinths at either end of Clifton Street in the town centre.
Great Promenade Show	A collection of 10 artworks commissioned over a period of four years from 2001 to 2005 forming an ‘outdoor’ contemporary art gallery along 2km of New South Promenade from Squires Gate to South Pier. Some of the artworks have since been removed, including the High Tide Organ by Liam Curtin and John Gooding, which made music from the swell of the tide. Alluding to the town's ballroom culture, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They is a giant mirror ball by artist Michael Trainor. At six metres in diameter and weighing six tonnes it was the world’s largest dance hall mirror ball at the time, covered in 47,000 mirrors that gently rotate and catch the light.
Choir Loft	Located next to the Cenotaph war memorial and installed in 2008, artist Ruth Barker's work consists of letters carved into granite blocks and treated with gold leaf reading 'Sing softly. Be still. Cease'. The memorial is dedicated 'to those who struggle for freedom in all conflicts, and those who remember them'.
The Wave	Installed in St John's Square in 2009 and designed by Lucy Glendining the 10.5m high x 2.5m wide stainless steel wave structure has internal lighting that shines through a laser cut pattern with transparent blue resin insets. It features a resin swimmer figure in clear blue and resin blue pebble sculptures at the base which act as seats.
Soldier Sculpture (and Salisbury Woodlands)	Designed by Thompson Dagnall and installed in 2009 in Salisbury Woodlands, the figure of a soldier with metal helmet and rifle is carved from Lancashire Mill stone and sits atop a WWII pillbox. The woodlands also house a number of wooden carved sculptures including an archway entrance carvings of a bat, wood pecker and leaves.
Sand Sea & Spray	A number of large scale graffiti artworks feature throughout the town in locations including Talbot Road, Cookson Street and Palatine Road. They were created by a number of international artists as part of Sand, Sea & Spray street art festival which ran between 2011 and 2016.
The 999 statue	A 2.5m monument by Matt Titherington was installed in 2013 at Jubilee Gardens to honour police officers and a member of the public who died trying to rescue a man who had gone into the sea to save his dog in 1983.
Lightpool	Beginning in 2016, Lightpool is an annual light festival held over October half term that sees artistic light installations throughout the town centre and various fringe events. It was awarded the Arts Council’s National Portfolio Organisation status for 2023-2026, securing funding worth nearly £700,000.
Fancie Benches	In 2020 artist Tina Dempsey installed her first Fancie Bench in Blackpool's King's Square and in 2022 a second bench was installed in Edward Street. Fabricated by Lightworks – Blackpool Illuminations Depot – out of fibreglass, the colourful abstract designs were part of the Quality Corridors Scheme to improve the appearance of key streets in the town.
Tram Benches	Part of the Quality Corridors Scheme, in 2020 artist Andy Hazell installed two stainless steel benches in the shape of trams in Talbot Square. They depict heritage trams – a Blackpool OMO, built in the mid-1930s, and the Brush, built originally in 1937.
The Call of the Sea	A life-sized bronze painted sculpture by artist Laurence Payot in Talbot Square. It was designed in consultations with fashion students from Blackpool and The Fylde College, pupils from Blackpool Gateway Academy and the council’s beach patrol team, and was modelled after a local girl. It was installed in 2021 at a cost of £35,000, funded by the Quality Corridors Scheme.
Storytrails: Queercoaster	Created in 2022 by Joseph Doubtfire as part of the government-funded Unboxed festival. An augmented reality walking tour, it allowed participants to experience and learn about queer history in Blackpool through fragments of archive footage of news reports and stories collected from locals.
Blackpool Stands Between Us and Revolution	An illuminated text-based artwork by Tom Ireland that was temporarily installed on the roof of the Grundy Art Gallery in 2022. It is based on a quote by a local businessman to architect Thomas H Mawson in the 1920s to explain the town’s importance to working-class people.

Performing arts

Theatre

At its peak in the 1930s Blackpool’s numerous theatres and cinema could seat more than 60,000 people. [seaside heritage]

The Theatre Royal on Clifton Street first opened as the Assembly Rooms and Arcade in 1868. It later became the Tivoli Electric Theatre and eventually Yates's Wine Lodge before it was destroyed by fire in 2009.

In 1874 the Indian Pavilion was built on North Pier to host regular concert performances. After being damaged by fire in 1921 and destroyed by another in 1938 it was replaced by the Pavilion Theatre (now the Joe Longthorne Theatre) in 1939. One of few remaining pier theatres in the country, it hosts variety acts during the summer season. The theatre is Grade II listed but has been on the Theatres At Risk Register since 2014.  

The Borough Theatre (later Queens Theatre) opened in September 1877 on Bank Hey Street. A blue Plaque marks the location of the building which was demolished in 1972/73.

Her Majesty’s Opera House, part of the Winter Gardens complex, was built in 1889 and designed by architect Frank Matcham. The 2,500 capacity was soon deemed insufficient and was redesigned by architects Mangnall and Littlewood in 1910. In October 1938 the old Opera House was demolished and the third and current Opera House, with a classic Art Deco design, replaced it. Seating 3,000, it was the largest theatre in the country when it opened. [Seaside Heritage] The first Royal Variety Performance to be held outside London was staged there in 1955. The Opera House is one of only three remaining historic theatres in Blackpool still in operation, regularly staging touring musicals.

The Empire Theatre and Opera House on Church Street opened in 1895 and by 1900 it had been converted into a circus venue and renamed Hippodrome. In 1929 it became the ABC cinema but continued to host stage shows, including in the 1960s TV variety show Blackpool Night Out which the Beatles appeared on on 19th July 1964. The theatre became The Syndicate superclub in 2002 until it was demolished in 2014.

The Prince of Wales Theatre, built in 1879, was situated next to the site of Blackpool Tower. It was replaced in 1900 with the grand Alhambra complex but, unable to compete with the neighbouring Tower hit financial difficulties in 1902. Architect Frank Matcham remodelled the building and it became the Palace Theatre in 1904. It was demolished in 1961.

The Grand Theatre, built in 1894 and dubbed Frank Matcham’s masterpiece [cite], along with the Winter Gardens Opera House and the Joe Longthorne Theatre, is one of few historic theatres Blackpool still in operation. It hosts a mix of local, mainstream and high brow performances as well as an annual pantomime. In the 1990s the theatre was annexed to provided a Studio Theatre. Supported by the Friends of the Grand Threatre, it is a registered charity and in 2022 received Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation status, receiving a three year investment of more than £1.5m. In September 2023 Blackpool Council committed £500,000 to carry out urgent repairs to the theatre. The Grand has had a youth theatre company since 1996 and has partnered with the Royal Shakespeare Company to engage school children with theatre and performance.

The Old Electric is Blackpool's newest theatre, opening in 2021 on Springfield Road in the former Princess Electric Cinema. Founded by creative director Melanie Whitehead, it became the home of The Electric Sunshine Project CIC, a community theatre company established in 2016, as well as a community arts space. The renovation of the building, which had been a string of nightclubs prior, was National Lottery funded and carried out during lockdown.

Dance

Blackpool Empress Ballroom, built in 1896

Dance has been central to Blackpool culture for 150 years. One of the first places visitors could dance was on the open air on the piers and its popularity led to ballrooms opening across the town. The Tower Ballroom came first in 1894, quickly followed by the Empress Ballroom and then Alhambra.

The original Tower Ballroom was a smaller pavilion but the facility posed a threat to the Winter Gardens whose management responded in 1896 by improving its facilities. The Empress Ballroom – much grander and larger than its rival – was built on the site of a roller rink and designed by Mangnall and Littlewood with a capacity of 3,000. Towards the end of the First World War, in 1918, the Empress Ballroom was taken over by the Admiralty as a space to assemble Gas Envelopes for their R33 Airship. Renovations in 1934 included a new sprung dance floor with 10,000 strips of oak, mahogany, walnut, and greenwood, on top of 1,320 four inch springs, covering 12,500 foot.

The first Blackpool Dance Festival was held in the Empress Ballroom during Easter week in 1920. The idea is credited to either Harry Wood, the musical director of the Winter Gardens, or Nelson Sharples, a music publisher in Blackpool.The festival was devoted to three competitions to find three new sequence dances in three tempos – waltz, two step and foxtrot. There was one competition per day and, on the fourth, one dance was chosen as the winner. In 1931 the dance festival hosted the inaugural British Professional and Amateur Ballroom Championships and in 1953 the competitions included the North of England Amateur and Professional Championships, a Ballroom Formation Dancing Competition, the British Amateur and Professional Ballroom Championships, plus a Professional Exhibition Dancing Competition. In 1961, a British Amateur Latin American Tournament was held, followed by a Professional event in 1962. These two events were upgraded to Championship status in 1964. 1968 saw the introduction of the Professional Invitation Team Match and in 1975 the first British Closed Dance Festival was held – now the British National Championships. In modern times around 50 countries are represented across eight annual festivals in the Empress Ballroom and Blackpool Dance Festival is considered ‘the world’s first and foremost festival of dancing’.

Blackpool Tower Ballroom, designed by Frank Matcham, opened in 1899

The present Tower Ballroom was designed by Frank Matcham and opened in 1899 to rival the Empress Ballroom, matching its capacity of 3,000. Its sprung dance floor measures 120 feet by 102 feet and comprises of 30,602 separate blocks of mahogany, oak and walnut. The inscription above the Ballroom stage, 'Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear’, is from Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis sonnet. Among the Ballroom’s one-time strict rules were ‘gentlemen may not dance unless with a lady’ and ‘disorderly conduct means immediate expulsion’. Originally, dancing was not permitted on Sundays when an evening of sacred music was performed instead. In December 1956, the ballroom was badly damaged by fire and the dance floor was destroyed. It took two years and £500,000 to restore. The BBC series Come Dancing – aired between 1950 and 1998 – was broadcast from the Tower Ballroom and featured professional dancers competing against each other. It’s reinvention as Strictly Come Dancing relaunched in 2004 and includes an annual Blackpool week, when the show is broadcast from the Tower Ballroom. The Tower Ballroom remains a popular venue for dancing and its celebrated Wurlitzer organ still rises from below the stage. In 2022 it featuring on the BBC’s interactive map of 100 Places for 100 Years of the BBC.  

During the 20th century, ballroom bandleaders created new novelty dances including The Blackpool Walk, the dance craze of the 1938 summer season. The music was composed by Lawrence Wright, a prominent music publisher, under the pen name Horatio Nicholls, and choreographed by 1937 Blackpool Dance Festival Champions, Cyril Farmer and Adela Roscoe. Inspired by the Blackpool Walk, in 2020 local dance company House of Wingz created a new social dance, The Blackpool Way, as part of a community project called Get Dancing. Music was composed by Callum Harvey and dance steps and moves were submitted by people from across the world.

Based on Back Reeds Road, House of Wingz was founded by married couple Samantha and Aishley Docherty Bell. Using knowledge and education in hip hop culture, the company aims to create a legacy or 'scene' for dance artists and musicians in Blackpool, who will contribute to a growing cultural landscape in the town. House of Wingz is the Blackpool partner for Breakin’ Convention, a festival celebrating the best in UK hip hop talent founded by pioneer Jonzi D. In 2022 members of House of Wingz collected seven trophies in the UDO World Street Dance Championships including two first place prizes. Although dance is at the heart of House of Wingz’, it is also home to a collective of musicians, artists and performers who stage their own productions and collaborate on creative projects. Skool of Street is House of Wingz' charitable arm, providing free access to classes for children who don’t have the means to pay as wall as delivering the Government’s Holiday Activities and Food programme.

Other dance schools in Blackpool include Phil Winstone’s Theatreworks, Whittaker Dance & Drama Centre and Langley Dance Centre.

Amateur dramatics

There are a number of notable amateur and community theatre companies in Blackpool.

On 14th January 2022, a blue plaque was unveiled on Michael Hall Theatre School (formerly Marton Parish Church Hall) on Preston New Road recording that, from 1930 to 2002, Marton Operatic Society performed Gilbert and Sullivan and other operas there. Founded as Marton Parish Church Choral and Operatic Society in 1930 by Reverend Charles Macready and William Hogarth, their first production was Cupid and the Ogre. In 2021, following setbacks due to Covd-19, reduced audiences, an ageing cast and nobody wanting to take on important committee positions, members voted to wind the society up. A final concert version of The Mikado was held on 29 October.

Junction Four Productions, formed in 1904 as Lytham Amateur Operatic Society (LAOS), is one of the original musical theatre groups on the Fylde Coast. It performs classic and contemporary musical productions and stages at least one musical performance per year. A registered charity, it changes its name in 2018 to reflect its varied canon.

Blackpool & Fylde Light Opera Company (BFLOC) is the longest-established amateur musical comedy society in the town, hosting annual productions since 1950, often at Blackpool Grand Theatre.

Established in 1953 Blackpool Operatic Players (BOP) has been presenting musical theatre productions in Blackpool and the surrounding areas for over 60 years.

Michael Hall Theatre School is a small theatre space and school in the former Marton Parish Church Hall. Between 2003 and 2020 it produced a number of plays, musicals, cabaret, dance shows, concerts, recitals and opera performances. It is run by Michael Hall who studied at the Royal Academy of Music under the distinguished American baritone, Bruce Boyce. Hall performed in Germany, France and Italy before establishing his theatre school whose past pupils include Jodie Prenger and Aiden Grimshaw. Following the Covid-19 pandemic the school reduced its offer to focus solely on singing lessons. Hall also runs Musica Lirica Opera Company which aims to make opera accessible as well as accommodate the more experienced opera going public.

Founded in 2005, TramShed is an inclusive theatre company and charity offering inclusive performing arts to all children, young people and adults many of whom have additional needs. In 2021 it was named a National Diversity Awards finalist.

Cou-Cou Theatre Productions is a Community Interest Company offering drama and musical theatre classes to all ages and abilities with its main ethos to build confidence. It was founded in 2018 by sisters Sophie and Nikita Coulon.

Music

Reginald Dixon, MBE, ARCM, who held the position as organist at the Tower Ballroom, Blackpool from March 1930 until March 1970 made and sold more recordings than any other organist.

1950s

Frank Sinatra performed at the Opera House on several occasions in the 1950s. A 1953 concert was recorded and eventually released on CD many years later.

1960s

The Beatles had a long and varied association with Blackpool, including a significant event in John Lennon's early childhood and multiple gigs in the town between 1963 and 1965.

Formed in Blackpool in 1963, The Rockin' Vickers were a rock and roll beat combo most notable for featuring Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister, then known as Ian Frasier, later of Hawkwind and more famously Motörhead, as a bassist and vocalist. The band recorded four singles before splitting in 1967. The other Rockin' Vickers guitarist, Nick Gribbon, continues to perform in pubs in and around Blackpool as Nick Unlimited, with an open door policy that has given many talented younger Blackpool musicians their first opportunity to play live.

The Executives were a Blackpool band who recorded a handful of singles in the 1960s including the original 1964 version of March of the Mods, which became a top 40 hit for Joe Loss and His Orchestra in the same year. The tune was written by Tony Carr, the father of Executives' frontman Roy Carr, who later became a well-known music journalist with New Musical Express and the author of several books on popular music and executive editor of music magazines including New Musical Express, Melody Maker and Vox. Executives bass player Glenn Cornick became a founding member of Jethro Tull, later forming Wild Turkey. Tony Williams, The Executives' guitarist, joined Stealers Wheel soon after its formation in 1972 and also briefly joined Jethro Tull in 1978 as a touring bassist.

Additionally, the nascent Jethro Tull, then called The Blades, featuring future Tull members Ian Anderson, John Evan, Jeffrey Hammond, and Barrie Barlow, formed as students in Blackpool in the early 1960s.

Blackpool was notorious for having imposed an indefinite ban on the Rolling Stones from performing in the town in 1964 after a riot broke out among the audience who had found their performance "suggestive" during their concert at the Empress Ballroom. The ban was lifted forty-four years later in March 2008.

The Jimi Hendrix – Experience video and DVD features concert footage of Hendrix's performance at Blackpool's Opera House in 1967.

1970s

Psychedelic rock band Complex were formed in Blackpool in 1968 and self-released two albums in 1971. Only 99 copies of their self-titled debut were pressed and this extremely rare vinyl album has since been described as "one of the "Holy Trinity" items of rare British Psychedelia". The band continued to play until 1978 when they disbanded with the onset of punk. Limited edition remastered versions of both Complex albums were released by Guersson in 2012.

A number of bands from Blackpool achieved a level of success during the punk and post-punk era. Factory Records' Section 25 were formed in 1977 in Poulton-le-Fylde, a small market town on the outskirts of Blackpool, as were the 1976–79 version of punk band Skrewdriver, who recorded several singles and an album for the Chiswick label (the skinhead "white power" rock act of the same name that gained notoriety later, contained only one member of the original band). Both bands claimed Blackpool as their place of origin.

1980s and 1990s

Another Blackpool band signed to Factory was Tunnelvision, who recorded just one single for the label in 1981.

When Barry Lights relocated his Lightbeat record label from Leeds to Blackpool in 1981, the label's first Blackpool signing was electronic rock band Zoo Boutique. After releasing the debut single by Fleetwood punk band One Way System, Lights set up specialist hardcore punk Beat the System label. Blackpool punk band The Fits were among the first to benefit, eventually releasing four indie chart hit singles in 1982–85.

The Membranes who featured John Robb initially set up their own Vinyl Drip record label in 1981 before achieving three indie top 20 hits from 1984 to 1986, reaching number 6 in John Peel's Festive Fifty in 1984 and making a pre-recorded appearance on Channel 4 rock show The Tube.

The Ceramic Hobs formed in 1985 and to date have "made more than 30 uncategorisable releases on vinyl, CD and cassette for many different worldwide record labels".

Blackpool musician Lucifer's "Cyber Punk Rock" EPs of 1994 contained the first full vocal songs intended for playback on a computer.

2000 onwards

21st century musical exports from Blackpool include Karima Francis, The Locals, who first appeared on BBC Introducingwhen they were just 15, Goonies Never Say Die, Litterbug, Aiden Grimshaw who came ninth on the 2010 series of X Factor, The Senton Bombs, UFX/Uncle Fester and Little Boots, who topped the BBC Sound of... poll in 2009.

The White Stripes recorded their first official DVD, Under Blackpool Lights, at the Empress Ballroom in the Winter Gardens on 27 and 28 January 2004. Get Up Kids guitarist Jim Suptic's Kansas City, Missouri, indie rock band Blackpool Lights is named after the DVD title.

In 2005, a compilation album, The Ugly Truth About Blackpool Volume One, chronologically documenting the best of Blackpool indie rock music from 1977 to 2005, was released by Andy Higgins' JSNTGM Records in conjunction with the Arts Council, Blackpool Evening Gazette and Blackpool Council. Volume 2, showcasing the best Blackpool indiebands active in 2005/6 was released the following year. Other Blackpool recording artists on JSNTGM include Sick 56, Erase Today and Litterbug.

Each August since 2006, Blackpool has been the venue for the largest festival of punk rock in the world, the annual Rebellion Festival, which is held in the Winter Gardens over four days and features over 200 punk bands.

In the 2010s, Grime music in Blackpool increased dramatically with the invention of BGMedia. They gained millions of views but also caught controversy due to the lyrical content of BGMedia rappers.

In August 2018, German Indie label Firestation Records released in Europe and Japan an eleven track retrospective album 'Illuminated', on Vinyl and CD, by the late 1980s Blackpool Indie Band 'Rik Rak'.

Songs about Blackpool

In 1937, George Formby's song "With My Little Stick of Blackpool Rock", was banned by BBC radio for having suggestive lyrics.

The Kinks' song "Autumn Almanac" contains the following lines: "... I go to Blackpool for my holidays/Sit in the open sunlight ..."

"She Sold Blackpool Rock" was a minor success in 1969 for Honeybus as the follow-up to their 1968 top ten hit single "I Can't Let Maggie Go".

Graham Nash's semi-autobiographical song "Military Madness" begins "In an upstairs room in Blackpool / By the side of a northern sea / The army had my father / And my mother was having me".

Paul McCartney recorded a song entitled "Blackpool" among a number of demo home recordings in the years 1971 and 1972.

The Jethro Tull song "Up the 'Pool" from the 1972 Living in the Past album is about Blackpool, singer Ian Anderson and other members of the band's childhood home. Another Tull track about the beach attractions of Blackpool is "Big Dipper", from the 1976 album Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die!.

In the early 1980s, the then Blackpool-based band The Membranes used the town as the subject matter for their "Tatty Seaside Town" 1988 single, which was later covered by Therapy? in 1994.

Other songs written about Blackpool include "Oh Blackpool" by The Beautiful South and several different songs called "Blackpool", by Sham 69, Macc Lads, Roy Harper and The Delgados. "Blackpool" is also the title song from a production co-written with author Irvine Welsh and Vic Godard (Subway Sect) in 2002, later released as a four-song EP called Blackpool. A song called "Blackpool Fool" appears on the Frank Sidebottom's album, A, B, C & D (1997).

Franz Ferdinand's 2013 "Love Illumination" single was originally called "Blackpool Illuminati".

Songs that mention Blackpool in the lyrics include "Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier", the opening track of the Manic Street Preachers album Everything Must Go, which contains the lyric "20ft high off Blackpool Promenade" amongst other references to Blackpool. The opening line of Soft Cell's 1982 "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" hit (later a hit for David Gray in 1998) "Standing at the door of the Pink Flamingo, Crying in the rain" is believed to be a reference to Blackpool's famous gay nightclub The Flamingo. Låpsley's chillout song "Painter (Valentine)" includes the lines "you can paint these wings and make me fly / crush coming over like the R.E.M kind / orange in the colour like Blackpool on the sunrise".

Folk songs written about the town include The Houghton Weavers anthem "The Blackpool Belle" ("Oh the Blackpool Belle was a getaway train that went from Northern stations. What a beautiful sight on a Saturday night bound for the illuminations"), Jasper Carrot's "Day Trip To Blackpool" ("Didn't we have a miserable time the day we went to Blackpool? An 'orrible day, we got drunk on the way And spent our money on chips and bingo...") and Mike Harding's single "Talking Blackpool Blues" ("Well my Mam and Dad and Gran and me / We went to Blackpool by sea / It rained and rained for most of the day / But we all got tanned in a funny sort of way").