The show must go on - but it's a Thursford Christmas Spectacular with a difference this year

  • Watch a report about the Thursford Enchanted Journey of Light by ITV News Anglia's Natalie Gray


The Norfolk festive show which attracts tens of thousands of visitors from all over the country every year has turned its annual Thursford Spectacular into an Enchanted Journey of Light.

The coronavirus pandemic has meant the usual stage show with an audience was cancelled but the attraction has invested £500,000 in a huge walking trail of Christmas illuminations covering four acres.

For more than 40 years the tiny village of Thursford has hosted a Christmas show which has grown into one of the biggest in Europe, attracting visitors from all over Britain and entertaining more than six million people.

John Cushing , who has been producing and directing every Christmas Spectacular since 1977, told ITV News Anglia: "We needed to keep Thursford on the Christmas radar and this was the only thing we could think of where we could get social distancing."

The usual annual Thursford Christmas Spectacular show had to be cancelled because of the pandemic

The organisers have used stage lighting usually used during the show to create a seven-minute music and lights show.

Booking is essential and groups of no more than six must all be from the same household to meet Covid regulations. It will be open until early January.