How Swansea Saved Its Christmas Parade 🎅

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Good morning, Swansea!

It was billed as a Christmas parade to be packed full of festive lights, joyous music, and Santa soaring by on his sleigh… but what actually rolled into the streets of Swansea to kickstart Christmas in 2018 became the stuff of local legend - for all the wrong reasons.

This week, we’re revisiting the local Christmas parade that left thousands upset, sparked a social media storm, and pressured Swansea Council into producing a Christmas comeback for the ages.

Catch you on Sunday!

Andrew.

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In the weeks leading up to Swansea’s 2018 Christmas parade, Swansea Council was in major hype mode, promising “an extravaganza of colour, music, dancing and the famous festive lights,” and Santa himself “starring in his very own time-travelling adventure featuring floats, dancers, clowns and choirs.”

With a brand new route and the chance to line both sides of the street, the entire procession, they said, would harness “amazing technology” designed to “transport onlookers to Christmases past, present, and future” - plus, live entertainment at four strategically-positioned stages.

Councillor Robert Francis-Davies, cabinet member for innovation, regeneration and tourism, told residents to expect a “show-stopper” of a parade that would light up the city and rival the previous year’s well-received event.

2017’s parade had included a The Polar Express theme and was highly praised by locals. So a year later, tens of thousands of excited children and their parents wrapped up warm and headed out into Swansea city centre on a cold November evening for what was guaranteed to be a magical few hours - or so they thought.

The reality on the night couldn’t have been further from what was promised. What actually turned up was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it procession that reports revealed had cost the council nearly £70,000: just three floats (only one of which had anything to do with Christmas), and a smattering of community groups.

Santa waved from a sleigh mounted on the back of a large truck, while the other floats left onlookers baffled - one contained some large stained glass windows, and the other, six static, decorative cubes with internal lighting. The entire event passed by the crowds in less than five minutes.

Those at the start of the parade could count themselves lucky to get away early, albeit disappointed - while others at the end of the route waited up to two hours in the cold for the procession to slowly make its way around to them.

Immediately following the event, parents were furious - and after feedback began to flood onto social media, it didn’t take long for the press to pounce - the story making national headlines. “It was rubbish. Nothing like last year. If you blinked you would have missed it,” said John Williams, who had brought his grandsons to watch.

Lucy Phillips, a mother of two from Swansea, told BBC News: “We stood around for an hour expecting something magical… it was all over in five minutes. My daughter looked at me and said, ‘Is that it, Mammy?’”

One Facebook commenter called it a “complete shambles,” while another described it as “the worst Christmas parade I’ve ever seen - nothing for the kids except loud music and a couple of dancers.”

Faced with the public backlash, Swansea Council leader Rob Stewart took to Facebook to issue an apology: “This year’s event was always going to be more challenging,” he wrote, citing major city centre roadworks and building works as the reason for fewer floats and performers. “The main event was not good enough… Last year the parade was well received and I expected that we would deliver the same experience this year. It hasn’t happened.”

The council promised a “full review” to understand what had gone wrong and committed to doing better next time. And to the relief of the estimated 50,000+ people who lined the city centre’s streets the following year, they did.

In 2019, Swansea’s Christmas parade returned with a bang: more floats, better staging, illuminated puppets, marching bands, local choirs, Disney characters, loads of community groups, and more.

After the parade, WalesOnline asked Rob Stewart how the council had managed to turn what had been dubbed the “worst Christmas parade ever” into one of the best. "The main difference this year was that everything was delivered in house... Last year left a lot of people with bad memories but this year people have been saying that this is a parade that will be remembered for years to come."

To the relief of freezing parents, bored kids (and a council desperate to stay off the front pages for all the wrong reasons), Swansea’s Christmas parade was back to its best, and after many more years of similarly impressive parades, the “shambles” of 2017 is now a distant memory.

In fact, the success of Swansea’s Christmas parade in recent years has seen it nominated at the National Outdoor Events Association (NOEA) Awards (very prestigious, apparently!) for 2025, with the winners announced later this month.

This year, Swansea’s annual Christmas Parade kicks off the city’s festive season on Sunday, November 23rd from 5 PM, starting at the Brangwyn Hall before heading into town. Will you be there?

Catch you on Sunday!

Andrew.

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