BRIDGWATER'S Christmas lights switch-on has gone viral after the lights turned on before the Mayor had pushed the lever.

A video shared of the ceremony Bridgwater Town Council's Facebook page on November 20 showed the lights illuminating before local dignitaries had finished plunging the detonator that was appearing to turn them on.

A video of the ceremony was then tweeted by BBC Somerset and has since gone viral. It has been watched over 700,000 times.

The Mayor of Bridgwater Cllr Leigh Redman was at the light switch-on with Sedgemoor District Council chairman Cllr Peter Clayton and said he didn't realise there was a delay with the lights until after the ceremony.

“On Thursday (November 19) we did a private event to turn on our annual Christmas lights in Bridgwater town centre, the chair of Sedgemoor district council and myself did the switch on outside of Cornhill Bridgwater, the event was videoed by my wife," the Mayor said.

READ MORE: LOOKING BACK: Bridgwater's Christmas lights of the last two decades

"We did a countdown with Peter and I facing away from Cornhill, it was not until we reviewed the video that we realised the switch had a hair trigger.

"I posted the video to the Mayor's Facebook page that evening, it was a funny film that was there to promote Bridgwater.

"On Friday I had a call from BBC Somerset with a request to share it on their page, I agreed, that was when things changed and social media took off.

"I was excited to see it take off in the Twittersphere and it looked like I was having my five minutes of fame.

"It took off, by Saturday morning I was getting messages from friends - the BBC were running it on their national news.

"Soccer AM showed it, we’ve had retweets from John cave on BBC Breakfast, Greg James from Radio One, Jo Wiley and Rev Kate Botley to name a few. By late afternoon it had had over half a million views.

"The main role when elected as Mayor of Bridgwater is to promote our wonderful town - I think this is doing that.

"Yes it was a bit of bad timing, but it was a bit of fun too. I am having so much fun, it's gone mad.

"The town council sponsors the lights.

"We would normally hold a big event with fair rides and stalls along High Street.

"Robson Electrical do all the technical things for us, all this tweeting is putting the spotlight on Bridgwater for a while.

"I hope that people will shop local when they can and follow the Covid guidance.

"This really is a bit of fun and I embrace it.”