Almost 4,000 people filled Wellingborough town centre to celebrate the start of Christmas.
Kylie Minogue, Michael Bublé and Olly Murs tribute acts, fireworks, artificial snow as well as Santa and his reindeer accompanied the switching on of the town’s festive lights during a party in Market Street, on Saturday, November 30.
The festivities were organised by the town’s Business Improvement District (BID), an organisation working to encourage people into the town centre, with support from Wellingborough Borough Council.
John Cable, BID manager, said: “Saturday represented a celebration of our great town centre, with families, couples and young people all coming together to enjoy a special occasion. We turned the town centre into a destination, making it a busy, vibrant place.”
Saturday also marked the start of the BID’s Christmas promotion, which sees participating shops giving out scratch cards every time £10 is spent, with the chance of winning 101 prizes, including a 50-inch flat screen television and children’s bikes. Every ticket will also be entered into a prize draw.
The town’s Christmas market was also launched with a series of pop-up shops located in Orient Way, which leads up to the main market, and offering arts, crafts and food.
Peter Stafford, 37, from the Queensway, who attended the party with his wife and two children, said: “I have never seen the town centre so busy, it was terrific.”
Five-year-old Casey Ambrose, from Wellingborough, who came along with his family, said: “I saw Santa and I had a hotdog.”
As well as the tribute acts in the build-up to the lights switch-on, there were performances from Bedford teenage singer Tom Korni and the Wellingborough School of Music.
Cruella De Vil, from The Castle’s Hundred and One Dalmatians festive production, also made an appearance on stage along with the town’s mayor and mayoress Graham and Lora Lawman, who received a tapestry from Wrenn School pupils created as part of a fundraising effort, which aims to raise £30,000 for Cancer Research UK.