A LIGHTS festival which attracts thousands of people to the region is set to return next year.

Lumiere, Durham’s biannual lights festival is set to be staged in 2019 and 2021.

The most popular pieces from the previous five Lumiere events will be staged next year to mark the festival’s 10th anniversary.

Durham County Council leader Simon Henig said: “2019 marks a decade from the birth of Lumiere in Durham and it seems fitting to mark that in spectacular fashion, particularly as we anticipate the combined visitor numbers linked to previous editions will see us surpass one million next year.”

Durham County Council’s cabinet is due to make a decision on whether to recommission the festival at a meeting next week.

Councillors are being asked to recommission Artichoke to deliver Lumiere in both 2019 and 2021, with community activities and legacy artworks in the years between.

If agreed the 2019 event, which would run from November 14 to 17, would bring back a number of the most popular artworks from the previous five festivals to mark the event’s 10th anniversary.

The festivals will use £1.8million from council reserves.

The money will come from a VAT windfall, ring-fenced for cultural activity from the council’s culture and sport department, to support four events

The council says there was an estimated 20 per cent increase in attendance in 2017, when around 240,000 people visited the city over four nights last November.

According to its assessment, visitors spent almost £3m and the 2017 event had an net economic impact of around £7.5m.