Festive
Events in Bideford
Gliding into Christmas
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| • Enjoy the ice skating rink at Atlantic Village! |
EXCITEMENT is mounting in Bideford as the run-up to Christmas gains momentum. The festive season has already well and truly started at the Atlantic Village outlet centre, where the big attraction is the Atlantis Big Rink.
The Big Rink, a 30ft x 80ft environmentally friendly, synthetic skating rink, proved for a second year running to be extremely popular. Throughout the day the village played host to an array of festive activities including 3 shows from the unique gliding angels 'Larkin About' as well as free painting and the fantastic Captain Coconut who was around all day to entertain the children.
The Atlantis Big Rink will now be open every weekend until February 2007 and from the 16 December it will open every day until 2 January so it can be enjoyed by all the family over the festive season.
The Christmas opening hours for Atlantic Village are:
Christmas Eve, 10:30am - 4:30pm
Christmas Day, Closed
Boxing Day 10am - 5pm
Wednesday, December 27, 10am - 6pm
Thursday December 28, 10am - 8pm
Friday, December 29, 10am - 6pm
Saturday December 30, 10am - 6pm
New Year's Eve. 10:30am - 4:30pm
New Year's Day, 10am - 5pm
For further information on these events at Atlantic Village this Christmas call (01237) 422544.
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| • Look out for Father Christmas and his Round Table helpers as they tour the streets of Bideford |
Santa’s on the way
Father Christmas and his Round Table helpers will have some extra pulling power as they tour the streets of Bideford and the surrounding area this year, bringing festive cheer and collecting money for local charities and good causes.
Table chairman, Edward Johns, said: “With Santa piling on the pounds, Rudolph was struggling to pull the sleigh on his own, so thanks to the kind-hearted staff from the Devonshire Motor Group of Barnstaple we have the use of a Mitsubishi Shogun reindeer and Santa will be able to travel up the steepest of streets to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.”
Last year, thanks to the generosity of the local community, Bideford Round Table was able to collect over £5,500, which has been donated to various local charities and good causes.
This year’s dates and routes are: December 9, Northam; 10, Fremington; 11,Westward Ho!; 12, Appledore; 13, Clovelly Road; 14, no float; 15, Londonderry; 16, Torrington; 17, East-the-Water; 18, Park Lane; 19, Lime Grove; 20, Moreton Park; 21 village run to Woolsery, Parkham, Buckland Brewer and Abbotsham.
Busy time at the market
DECEMBER is a busy month for Bideford Pannier Market as the traditional shopping centre lays out its festive stalls and provides the venue for colourful seasonal events - and for Santa!
Santa will be dropping in on December 9, with a scheduled 11am arrival, courtesy of Bideford Round Table.
The North Devon Hospices’ poignant and beautiful Light Up A Life carol service will again fill the Market Hall from 6.30pm on December 16 as local people remember lost loved ones through the light of candles on the Christmas tree.
Local choirs or groups are also being invited to perform Christmas songs at the market throughout December. Those wishing to take part should contact market manager John Fisher on (01237) 478777 for details.
Throughout December there will also be the regular Tuesday and Saturday markets and the adjoining Butchers Row shops will be open all week, offering a chance to find that elusive gift in the unhurried setting of this traditional shopping centre.
Colourful animals will be invited to big parade
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| • Bideford's Winter Carnival promises to be colourful, comical and musical. |
PARTY animals of all shapes and sizes will be descending on Bideford this festive season. The town with a nationwide reputation for its New Year’s Eve celebrations will not only be once again offering its hand of hospitality to thousands of costumed revellers, but also to party animals of another kind in its second annual winter carnival.
Visitors can expect to see such sights as red and black zebras disco-dancing down the street in keeping with the carnival’s special “party animals” theme.
Organised once again by Sue Russell and Flying Colours, with hopes of Lottery help to fund the spectacle, the event promises to be colourful, comical and musical.
While last year’s successful pilot parade was a sea of silver and white tranquillity, this year promises rich gold, red and black and the infectious rhythms of disco music.
There are plans for a series of public workshops leading up to the event to help people prepare their own costumes and take part in a parade that will be open to all.
The carnival will provide early evening entertainment for those from far and wide, most bringing their own fancy-dress costumes to join in the midnight celebrations which annually see up to 10,000 people congregating in the town for New Year’s Eve.
New Year’s Eve extravaganza
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| • ANNA Short, Lorna Carey, Mandy Burnett, Clare Carrell, Julie Mitchell and Clare McKenzie having a high old time as air hostesses at the New Year’s Eve celebrations last year. |
BIDEFORD is preparing once more to welcome its thousands of festive guests with a New Year’s Eve night they will never forget.
In a custom unrivalled in the region, costumed revellers will descend on the town from across the country — and even from overseas — to renew old acquaintances and take part in the massed welcome of the New Year on the town’s Quay.
The colourful and happy spectacle is one that has largely grown of its own volition over the years and has given the town a reputation as one of the top celebration spots in the
country.
But as numbers have grown so, too, has the need for organisation and in recent years a committee of local councillors, traders and others have put in place a package of entertainments, special facilities and safety measures to enhance and extend the experience.
This year’s roadshow entertainment will feature reggae band Zamba and lead singer Della Brookes, plus DJ Jude, and with Seth Conway of Westcountry TV as the compere.
A mobile bar on the quay and a range of food outlets —including buffalo burgers — will help to sustain revellers and also to relieve pressure on the town’s food and drink businesses.
Once again there will be special barriers along the quayside to keep partygoers away from the river’s edge and organisers are appealing to those attending not to bring bottles or glasses to the event. Pubs and clubs will be playing their parts by serving drinks in plastic mugs.
It is a move started two years ago after a number of people suffered cuts from broken glass on the roadway and pavements and has proved a huge success.
While many of the revellers will fill the local pubs and clubs, all will come out on to the streets as midnight approaches to join the ever swelling ranks of fancy dress characters on the Quay in a joyous celebration of traditional good humour, until the colourful spectacle fills the Quay and many of the streets approaching it.
There they wait for the chimes of the Parish Church clock to strike 12 — or for those of Big Ben, relayed to the crowd through loudspeakers.
They will be marked by the simultaneous setting off of a fireworks display across the river from the eastern bank.
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