The annual Christmas fair will return to campus with a wide range of stalls and festive attractions. The event, organised by Lancaster University Students’ Union (LUSU), will be held on Friday, Week Nine from 12 noon until 9pm in Fylde College.
“This year’s event is a traditional Christmas market inspired by the successful German markets in city centres, but with a twist,” Ellie Cootes, a LUSU team member, told SCAN. “Expect more food and drink, lots of great stalls for all your Christmas shopping, live reindeer, and even a sprinkling of snow courtesy of our snow machine.”
Santa’s grotto, chair-o-planes, and live entertainment will be among the top attractions at the event. Father Christmas will also be giving out presents to lucky visitors at his grotto, situated in Fylde Common Room.
Along with this, the Glee Club, Dance Society, Performing Arts Society, Gospel Choir, Pentecostal Gospel Choir and Music Society will be performing at the live Christmas show at Fylde Quad.
Weather forecasts for Friday predict it will be chilly at 5 °C high and likely to rain, but visitors to the market can expect cloudy weather with sunny spells throughout the day.
“[We] are as prepared as we can be. Our market stalls are under cover, but in the case of extreme weather obviously our fairground attraction would have to close down,” said Cootes.
She added: “The idea of the Christmas market is for people to get wrapped up and have a look around, and there will be plenty of mulled wine and other hot treats to warm everyone up. We are hoping the only extreme form of weather is [from] our snow cannon.”
UPP, one of the event’s sponsors, is holding a Christmas raffle in aid of the Prince’s Trust. Visitors to the Christmas fair can buy five raffle tickets for £1 to win various prizes including electronic gadgets and shopping vouchers. All attractions at the event are free of charge. More information about the Christmas market can be found on its Facebook event page.
