Cardiff Council is giving its backing to this year’s seasonal Christmas Market which is set to bring some festive sparkle to the city centre.
The market is organised by Maxine Hird and Jane Hall, who run Craftfolk and have had a presence in the city for 16 years.
This year, for the first time, the market is relocating to the city’s Castle Quarter which has recently benefited from an impressive facelift, creating a pedestrian-friendly environment for visitors and shoppers.
Running from November 10 until December 23, the market will include more than 40 traditional wooden chalets sited in the newly refurbished High Street, as well as the pedestrianised St John’s Street and Working Street the area backing onto the St John’s Church railings.
The two sites will be linked by the Edwardian arcades of High Street and Duke Street, already home to an amazing array of shops from small boutiques, jewellery and vintage clothes emporia to quirky individual fashion stores.
The market will contain a wide range of art and crafts, with talented exhibitors selling a diverse mix of high quality products such as slate and pewter work, heritage images of Wales, carved Welsh love spoons, metalwork, photography, ceramics and pottery, silver and precious stone jewellery, pyrography items, and toys,
The chalets will showcase traditional skills such as specialist knotting, knitting, leatherwork, glasswork, needlework and wood turning together with many other original decorative items for the house and garden – to name but a few.
Visitors to the Cardiff Christmas Market will get the opportunity to also taste the seasonal food and drink on offer, choosing from a professional selection of home made pickles and jams, whisky, wines, fruit and cream liqueurs, freshly made pancakes, honey roasted nuts, olives, hot winter soups, a traditional hog roast and bratwurst.
Councillor Nigel Howells, Executive member for Sport, Leisure and Culture said: “This year’s Christmas market is going to be the best yet and I am hugely impressed at the sheer array of items that will be on display. To relocate it to the Castle Quarter is a fantastic idea, with the magnificent backdrops of Cardiff Castle and St John’s Church. The work that has gone into transforming this end of the city has created a spectacular environment and the Christmas Market is going to show it off at its very best.”
Andrew O’Flaherty from Curzon Retail, who own the three arcades in the Castle Quarter said that the Christmas Market would bring more people into the area and create a real buzz over the next few months.
“We see it as a good way of generating footfall back into the locality and people will be able to see first hand what has happened to the area physically in the last year. I’m sure the market will be incredibly popular and a great boost to the Castle Quarter.”
Jane said: “The Christmas Market has been organised and run by us since 1994 and
we are very excited about the move to the Castle Quarter. As always we will be working closely with Cardiff Council City Centre Management to deliver a fantastic market and everyone involved is looking forward to the coming weeks.”
Maxine added: “We have some amazing stalls this year including hand crafted items, unique Christmas gifts, and irresistible food and drink. The Christmas Market is going to be the perfect opportunity for people to seek out that unique personalised gift or ‘just perfect’ present whilst sipping warming mulled wine or winter soup. This year farm fresh Welsh produce turned into gastro style seasonal take home and street food will add to the vibrant atmosphere of the Christmas Market where a real passion for tradition sometimes comes with a modern twist.”
For more information visit http://www.cardiffchristmasmarket.com/
