Two-day-long Christmas market to kick start return of leisure attractions to East of England Showground
Community venture Up The Garden Bath is to host the first public event to be held at the East of England Showground for four years.
A two-day Christmas Craft Market will be staged at the East of England Showground next month.
It will be the first public attraction to take place at the Showground since major leisure attractions, which had been a feature of the venue for decades, were stopped about four years ago.
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Leisure attractions at the 164 acre Showground were axed as part of plans by owners the East of England Agricultural Society, to make way for 1,500 homes plus a 50 acre leisure village.
Although the plans were rejected by councillors, the 50 acres earmarked for the leisure village had been leased for 20 years to APEG, which says it still intends to host public attractions on the land it controls.
Dave Poulton, co-founder of Up The Garden Bath, said: “We are delighted to have been chosen to host the first public event at the Showground for four years.
He said the craft market would feature 100 stalls of locally-made attractions including gifts, food and wellbeing products.
The event will take place on December 12 and December 13 each day from 10.30am to 4.30pm.
Entry will cost £2 per person while under-14s will go free.
It will be the first of a number of major public attractions to return to the Showground next year.
Just weeks ago AEPG secured a premises licence for the Arena that will allow it to hold major events that could attract audiences of 14,999 people with refreshments and alcohol to be sold.
Ashley Butterfield, chief executive of AEPG, said: “We are delighted to support Up The Garden Bath and the wider community with this event.
"Our new premises licence allows for about 15,000 people and although we don’t expect that number to attend this event, it is a great way to start a build up of community, music, live indoor and outdoor entertainment and leisure activity at the Showground again.
"We have an extensive diary of events evolving for 2027 and beyond with some old favourites and new coming soon.
"We have been pleased to see how popular outdoor live music/festivals and motorsport events are and we look forward to enjoying these at the Showground.”