The Wombats and Ella Henderson join the switch-on party

They are The Wombats, one of the UK’s most successful indie bands, and multi-platinum selling singer-songwriter Ella Henderson.

The Wombats launched their music career 15 years ago. Three top five UK albums later, they are now the darlings of the TikTok generation following the viral success of the remix of their 2015 hit, Greek Tragedy, which has attracted more than 30 million streams. 

They will be taking second to top billing on the main stage at the Reading and Leeds Festivals later this summer.  Over the past nine years, Ella Henderson has emerged as one of the country’s brightest young music talents. By the age of 25, she had been nominated for two Brit Awards, landed a number one debut album and single, and reached more than a billion streams.

Now signed to Rudimental’s label, Major Toms, she continues to be one of the UK’s most in-demand writers and vocalists, and her platinum collaboration This Is Real with Jax Jones was one of last year’s most played songs.

In February, Ella released Let’s Go Home Together with Tom Grennan, reaching number one on iTunes and The Big Top 40, and became her seventh UK Top 10.

The Wombats and Ella will perform in the world-famous Blackpool Tower Ballroom on the night of Friday 3 September along with KSI, Britain’s biggest breakthrough artist in 2020, and another of the country’s hottest new talents, Wes Nelson, in a concert that will be live streamed to a global audience.

The show will culminate in the switching on of the 2021 Illuminations display by the queen of ballroom, Shirley Ballas, the head judge on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, to trigger the start of an extended four-month display.

Produced in association with MTV, the concert will be hosted by TV and radio presenter Becca Dudley, and will be watched by an audience made up of winners of a free-to-enter ballot.

The show will also be live streamed across MTV and VisitBlackpool channels. Last year, the free-to-access streamed event attracted a global audience of more than 250,000 households.

Around 1,500 tickets will initially be available to join the live audience. The ballot has now closed and winners will be informed in the week commencing August 16.
The ticket allocation is being split equally between local residents and visitors.  The live stream will start at 8pm on Friday 3 September and can be viewed free of charge at: visitblackpool.com/switchon, youtube.com/mtvuk and facebook.com/mtvmusicuk

This year’s Blackpool Illuminations will run from Friday 3 September to Monday 3 January, 2022.