Operated by Salisbury Business Improvement District (BID), the market has become a highlight of the city’s festive calendar over the past seven years and is aiming to ensure the city is a great place to spend some time at Christmas with lots of exciting plans for this year.
The 2017 event helped attract more than one million visitors to the city during an extended 30-day run and was again recognised as one of Britain’s Best Christmas Markets by the Daily Telegraph.
Applications for 2018 traders will open on Monday 16th July through the market website.
Following planning approval from Wiltshire Council this week to extend the Christmas market into the Close BID Chief Executive Robin McGowan said: “We had planned to develop the Christmas market into the Cathedral Close this year but, with the unprecedented impact of the major incident in the city, along with various planning requirements needed, we have made the difficult decision not to proceed with the Close extension this year. We must devote our resources wisely to ensure the coming Christmas season in the city is successful. We are grateful for the ongoing support of the Cathedral in this approach.”
Acting Dean of Salisbury Cathedral, The Reverend Canon Edward Probert, said: “We look forward to another successful, high quality Christmas market in the Guildhall Square. We have worked hard with the BID this year to collaborate for the benefit of the city but their decision to err on the side of caution is understandable. We continue to be committed to exploring how the cathedral can support Christmas in Salisbury in the future.”
This year the Christmas market will feature a wide range of chalets selling quality gifts, plus live music, choirs and workshops, a food and drink quarter and the annual lantern procession.
As well as returning to the Guildhall Square, work is under way to agree the locations of other Christmas activities in other parts of the city centre to help boost city businesses in the wake of the March incident.
Salisbury BID is also working closely with the recovery group to seek additional funds to help boost Salisbury’s Christmas offering and market the city to a wider audience.
In partnership with VisitWiltshire, Salisbury BID co-fund the Visit Salisbury website to promote the city to visitors. The Visit Salisbury website has a full events calendar for Salisbury.
