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Page last updated at 07:27 GMT, Friday, 31 August 2012 08:27 UK

Oakley: Blackpool illuminations are a 'dinosaur'

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The lights are being switched on in Blackpool today, a tradition going back 100 years and which now costs £2m.

Councillor Simon Blackburn describes it as "one of the best free shows on earth." But Phil Oakley, former director of the Blackpool Festival of Light, describes the illuminations as a "dinosaur" and thinks the tradition needs to modernise and "understand the market".

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