Arts and Culture in Blackpool

Strap on your dancing shoes, and waltz into the best Blackpool offers. With dozens of grand venues showcasing dance, opera, and theatre - and with quirky works of art littering the seaside promenade - Blackpool’s cultural scene is currently towering like never before.

 

Performing arts

 

Blackpool’s live venues almost overshadow the performances themselves, with flowing gold roofs, and intricately sculpted faces decorating the town’s hotspots. The beautiful buildings set the stage for amazing local and national shows, guaranteeing there’s always something fresh to see when you’re in town.

 

 

With well over a century of history to its name, there’s no better place to sit back and lose yourself in a finely tuned show than in this Frank Matcham-designed theatre. Drink in the plush surroundings as an opera singer’s booming voice reverberates, or sing loudly with the crowd as a touring West End musical reaches its climax. With beautiful ballet productions also running, the Grand Theatre is a great place to get your children’s imaginations soaring.

 

33 Church Street, Blackpool FY1 1HT.  

 

Opera House

 

Keep your sides together as the crowd shakes with laughter during a comedian’s set, or sit in quiet reverie as a string section brings a tear to your eye, at this ornate Opera House in the Winter Gardens. The Grade II Listed building may also have you smiling with nostalgia as you sit back and let the sounds of its vintage, Wurlitzer organ wash over you, conjuring up vivid memories of seaside songs and summer holidays.

 

97 Church Street, Blackpool FY1 1HL.  

 

Dance festivals

 

Blackpool’s dance festivals put the town firmly in the international spotlight. You’ll be having a ball as you watch the world’s best dancers swirling gracefully across the floor, before making improbable holds and gravity defying lifts. Tower Ballroom

 

Come along to the venue known as the home of ballroom dancing, the Tower Ballroom, where the sprung floorboards add a little extra bounce to any performance. Made even more famous by hit TV shows, it brings a showbiz swirl of glitter and glamour to Blackpool. Got the dancing bug? Test your own footwork on the hallowed boards, during the annual New Year’s Eve Party.

 

The Promenade, Blackpool FY1 4BJ.  

 

Museums

 

Forget stuffy museums, where you’re kept well away from the exhibits by fun-spoiling ropes. Blackpool’s displays invite you to get up close and personal - and whether it’s chatting with the volunteers who save lives at Blackpool Lifeboat Station, taking pictures with your favourite celebrities at Madame Tussauds, or screaming as actors leap out at you in the dungeons, you're always right in the thick of the action.

 

 

Enter the dark bowels of Blackpool Tower, where you’ll be thrust directly into your own horror story, as you explore tales of Blackpool’s murky past. Meet the mourning White Lady, who died of a broken heart while waiting for her shipwrecked husband to return, before judging for yourself whether the Pendle Witches were supernatural, or simply super unlucky. Not for the faint hearted, this tour of Blackpool’s dark underworld will have you laughing and shaking in equal measure.

 

Bank Hey Street, Blackpool FY1 5BJ.  

 

Art galleries

 

Stroll along the Promenade to see the gleaming art installations and angular sculptures that form The Great Promenade Show. If they ignite your imagination, then take the short drive to Crosby Beach, where the haunting figures of the Another Place installation stretches across two miles of beach. Meanwhile, there's more art to be seen back in Blackpool.

 

 

Get your fix of indoor art at the Grundy, where you’ll either love or hate the contemporary exhibitions, which range from piles of rubble to mirrors that distort their surroundings. Moody, Victorian-era paintings by Cuthbert Grundy are also on permanent display, in the museum that honours his work.

 

Queen Street, Blackpool FY1 1PX.