Sahira Barajas
Review Assignment
I attended the Regent Street Christmas Light switch-on today and I have to say it was pretty magnificent. First of all, it’s November and all the Christmas decorations, lights and shopping has started, which is surprising because in the US all of that business doesn’t start until later December after Thanksgiving. Anyways, I specifically attended this event because I wanted to write my review on it. I went with a few set expectations about what was going to happen but I saw more than what I expected, which was wonderful.
As I walked through Oxford Street looking at the Christmas lights already on made me excited to see all the lights on Regent Street turned on because they are much bigger, therefore, brighter. Once I got to the area that the stage was located, half an hour before the event started, there was tons of people lined up already. It seemed like people were waiting in line for longer than half an hour so it made me think this event was really exciting. As I was standing in line so many people would stop and stare to see what was going on and would ask what was happening. It is interesting to see how people always assume something is going on when there is a huge crown around one particular area. Since there was a stage people also assumed there was famous people there so as expected, those people rushed to be in line as well without completely knowing what was going to happen as long as they got the chance to see a famous person perform.
Before the security people let everyone through, they strictly announced to everyone not to run to the stage because there were children in the crowd and they didn’t want anyone to get hurt. But the first thing that everyone did was run! It was hilarious how desperate people can get to be in the front row of a free performance and to see famous people.
The announcers went down the list of people that were going to perform which included a winner of the hit show The X Factor, which is really popular with young people here in the UK. Following the announcement of The X Factor winner, there was loud annoying screaming for a few minutes by some teenage girls standing near me. I could care less about the performances because I didn’t know who anyone was except Kelly Clarkson, the winner of the first American Idol, a show similar to The X Factor in the US, but even with her performing, I could care less.
The effect of the actual singing performances were irrelevant to me being at the event, all I wanted to see were the lights. On the other hand, all the people around me seemed to love the performances, which made me think that the event coordinators of the Regents Street Christmas Light switch-on have yearly pulled in massive amounts of people not only to see the lights turned on but to see a spectacle of celebrities take part in the event. It also demonstrates how much attention is given to famous people by the public.
Once it was time to switch-on the lights, I became really excited because I wanted to see if the light performance was going to live up to my expectations. The countdown started and boom, it was more than what I imagined it would be. All the lights turned on in a matter of seconds, confetti was thrown up into the air and slowly began to fall into the crowd and the fireworks went on for a few minutes to keep the excitement going. I was really amazed to see how beautiful Regent Street looked during those few minutes although the fireworks pollute the air and someone would have to pick up all the confetti from the street, it was worth attending.
The Regent Street Christmas Light switch-on was definitely a theatrical performance because there was a stage and the singers were the actors playing out a role by singing their songs and giving a performance to the audience. Although, they embody themselves on the stage, they are acting in a different form because you don’t see them walking on the street everyday just singing. The role they put on is a specific one for the stage.
Not only were the singers giving a performance but as I stated in my other review assignment, the switch-on celebrates a cultural holiday, Christmas. The lights themselves give a performance to reinforce cultural and religious traditions. Another tradition that is reinforced is the one of consumerism because there was store advertisement during the event and the event took place in the middle of hundreds of retail stores, making people want to shop for Christmas gifts after the Regent Street Christmas Light switch-on event.
Even though, I did not fall into temptation to shop or want to pray and go to church for Christmas, it did get me in the Christmas mood, a bit too early but I enjoyed the lights, performances and if I was here in London next year around this time, I would go again.
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