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Christmas Market 2005, 4 December 2005
The centre of Alton was packed for the town's Christmas festivities, which this year filled the High St with a colourful French Market, craft, charity and local produce stalls. It was definitely a family day, with children's rides, baby donkeys, a Santa's Grotto and lots of street entertainers, including a singing reindeer, jugglers, a stilt walking chimney sweep and Cycling Santa, who kept everyone amused and bewildered with his cheeky chat.
The Christmas atmosphere was maintained by the Salvation Army band, who played carols on the corner of Turk St, Minden Rose and Alton Morris, who danced at various locations, whilst Delta FM's DJ's played festive music on the corner of Market Street.
All the car parks in the town centre were full by midday and at times it was difficult to move along even the widest part of the High St outside the Swan Hotel.
The event was organised jointly by the town council, Alton Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Alton Initiatives Management. Town Initiatives Manager, Vernon Pearce, said, "We were overwhelmed by the number of people who attended and the atmosphere was just great. One stallholder told me it was the friendliest town he'd ever been to. It was also very rewarding to see many of the local traders open and having a good day, particularly those serving food, after the planned Hog Roast failed to turn up."
Even Santa underestimated the success of the event and ran out of presents towards the end of the afternoon. "I am really sorry that some children were disappointed," said Vernon, "and I hope their parents will understand. We will certainly be learning lessons from our success this year and will be hoping to make it an even bigger and better event next year."
Greg Burt, deputy town clerk said, "To see the town packed solid from 10am through to 4pm made the 12 months of planning very worthwhile. Our Christmas town centre events have come a long way since we started them in 2000 and we are now clearly attracting visitors from across the region. I think that an attendance of 10,000 yesterday would not be far out and it is certainly the biggest crowd I've ever seen in Alton. The team are already buzzing with ideas on how to make next year's event bigger and better and it's not even Christmas yet!"
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