Another Cracking Christmas Lights Switch-on
As expected there was a huge turnout on Friday 24 November for the popular Christmas Lights Switch-On. There was a full evening of free entertainment and lots of Christmas cheer for the whole family including the beautiful Cairngorm Reindeers (outside the Town Hall), Santa in his grotto (at the Cygnet Club) craft stalls to support our local community groups and plenty of festive food and drink.
The Lantern making workshops were a great success with nearly 100 lanterns made with some especially creative ideas this year including a space ship and Blackpool Tower!
Thanks to all the families who came along and took part in the parade and thanks to Karamba for leading the parade with their wonderful samba drumming.
Congleton Heraldic Flag Project celebrating the Town’s 750 year birthday
Congleton Community Projects were delighted to receive a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £9,200 for an exciting heritage project, to create the bespoke designed and hand painted Heraldic flags that decorate our Town Centre, celebrating 750 years since the Charter in 1272.
The Christmas switch-on was a much smaller event this time with less of our usual razmatazz. But there was still a lot going on and there was plenty of room to move around which had been the aim of downsizing the event. The Charity stalls in the pedestrian area were really busy, quite a few local shops had tables out in front of their premises selling mulled wine and mince pies, and we even had a beautiful unicorn to wow the crowds as well as our entertaining reindeer stilt walkers.
This year 2020 the Congleton Food & Drink Festival was nothing like it has been for the last 12 years. Our Town Centre streets were not heaving with 25,000 visitors and over 100 food and drink stalls but with a bit of imagination and basic technology the Festival Team brought to you a selection of top quality local producers who are still making, baking, brewing and cooking up treats.
We would like to thank DJs Past and Present for a fabulous fund raising Soul Night on Friday 4th October in the Town Hall. Many thanks to Andy Farron, Steve Walsh and Chris Booth for volunteering their famous DJ skills for the night. Richard Wharf not only took up his stint as DJ but also organised the whole event so a huge thanks to him for all his time and generous support for Congleton Community Projects.
Theatre in the Quarter presents
SILENT NIGHT
A play with music. Written by Helen Newall. Original music by Matt Baker.
At once moving and entertaining, Silent Night tells the incredible story of the Christmas Eve truce of 1914, through the experiences of a group of Cheshire soldiers and the families they left behind. Against a backdrop of archive images, original music and popular songs from the era, Silent Night vividly portrays events surrounding the historic moment when the guns stopped.
The town centre was transformed once again into a thriving food market with 100 stalls selling a mouth-watering range of top quality local produce and global street food. A handpicked selection of brand new producers joined our regulars, with plenty of firm Congleton favourites making a welcome return for the Festival’s sixth year.