Organisers of the city's lights switch-on have vowed to get more than the 4,000 visitors who turned up for last year's event. They also want to create new events for the festivities.

These include a traditional lantern parade through the city centre and a choir competition with local primary schools singing at the switch-on.

City centre traders have embraced the event, which will be themed around the fairy tale ballet The Nutcracker, and vowed that it will coincide with their own events.

Organiser Babs Murphy, chief executive of the North and Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, said: "We understand Christmas is a vital time of year for traders and we will ensure that this year's celebrations really are quite something.

"We have been planning behind the scenes over the last few weeks to help bring vital visitor numbers to the city.

"Initial talks started in early December and we are thrilled to announce that all plans were finalised late last week.

"We wanted to let the city know as early as we could that we are committed to bringing Preston to life this Christmas and ensure there is a confidence in the proactive nature of the team."

The city's top two shopping centres, The Mall St George's and the Fishergate Shopping Centre, have both thrown their support behind the switch-on, which is being staged by radio station Rock FM which traditionally broadcast live from the event.

Fishergate manager Keith Mitchell and The Mall boss Ken Williams said they would be looking at staging its events to coincide with the switch-on.

Mr Mitchell said he was keen to see events like the lantern parade start from The Mall.