Thursday 19th December marked the date of the Swindon Christmas lights switch-on, with guest appearance and performance from Union J.
As George is currently in the jungle for I’m a Celeb, Josh, JJ and Jaymi appeared onstage at Wharf Green in Swindon town centre at 6:15 pm. George did, however, send his wishes to the town and the main hosts also brought out a cardboard cut-out of him.
Despite opening their set with technical difficulties at the outset, the bass vibrated through the hearts of not only teenage girls, but families with children riding on their shoulders. There were even audience members watching from the McDonalds window opposite the stage!
The performance began with “Tonight (We Live Forever)”, which the teenage girls at the barrier screamed back to the band. This appeared to be one of the lesser known songs to the rest of the crowd, but spirits weren’t dampened. The music was finally in full swing, which the town had been waiting for from at least 4:30 pm.
This led to “Carry You”, which seemed to be a favourite in the crowd as it was their first released single and one of their most popular. Children and even adults enjoyed singing along at this point in the show and the drizzle didn’t dampen their spirits. This was followed by their next popular single, “You Got It All”, which the audience were encouraged to join in with and sing the lines back to the band. The whole audience was united by this and I’m sure that this made the band’s day; that so many people knew their songs and how appreciative they were of their appearance.
Despite the huge turnout, a lot of the audience left at this point, which shows that they were there purely to see the performance rather than the turning on of the lights, which may have looked bad, but this goes to show the influence they have had on the town.
The switch-on, however, was beautiful; lighting up the whole parade and making the town festive already. The lights triggered ‘snow’ to fall over the audience while they sang Christmas songs with Union J.
The boys also revealed that they are backing Lauren Murray in the X Factor this year, as well as George in the jungle (obviously!).
Check out some of the highlights here.
Don’t forget to comment and follow @CelebMix on Twitter.