The weekend of Saturday the 16th and Sunday the 17th of November saw Christmas festivities starting across the Caerphilly County Borough.
This year’s first Winter Fair took place in Ystrad Mynach Town Centre and the first weekend of the River of Light Lantern Making Workshops was held in Caerphilly in preparation for the Parade on the 30th of November.
Ystrad Mynach Town Centre welcomed an outstanding 8,756 visitors, with 1,069 being the peak attendance at 12pm. It was the busiest day of the year so far, with 7,362 more visitors in the town compared to the previous Saturday. It is also the 2nd busiest event on record for the town centre.
There were various food, drink, and craft stalls in attendance at the fair as well as other entertainment such as Santa’s Grotto, puppet shows, live music and stage performances, funfair rides, and much more that was loved by everyone!
The first weekend of lantern making was in full swing at the Twyn Community Centre ahead of the River of Light Lantern Parade in Caerphilly Town Centre on Saturday the 30th of November.
There were 351 lanterns made across the weekend and two more days of lantern making will be taking place on Saturday 23rd November and Sunday 24th November which is free to attend with no booking necessary. There are also lantern workshops in Bargoed on the 23rd and 30th November and the 7th of December ready for the Bargoed Parade on the 7th of December.
Hear what traders, performers and retailers thought of the Ystrad Mynach Winter Fair:
Chris Noonan from The Jewellery Stall said “Just a few words to say thank you all for Saturday. Lovely day, great crowd looking forward to Blackwood next week.”
The House of Bark said “Just wanted to say a massive thank you for everyone’s hard work at Ystrad Mynach on Saturday. The set up, layout and organisation was fantastic, and the planning really paid off. It was an enjoyable day, lots of people out and about. A great range of traders with some amazing products on offer. Thank you again for your hard work.”
Pasithea commented “Thank you and all the team for a fantastic day yesterday. The organisation of the event was (as always) brilliant. The weather was kind to us, and it was lovely to see so many people out and about.”
Studio 54 also said “Congratulations I think it was a huge success! A VERY successful day, Mickey and Minnie loved it too and couldn’t move for children.”
DYT Dance & Performing Arts commented “We loved it. It was the best fayre in Ystrad Mynach to date! Thanks so much for the opportunity we would love to do it again next year. Well, done for an awesome event.”
Memories Cards Crafts Gifts also commented “The events team do a fantastic job in bringing footfall to the town and you could see this by the amount of people from all over the borough who were enjoying the experience. I can’t thank you enough and for raising awareness of where our little outlet is situated. Our takings were significantly higher than our normal day, which was fantastic and a welcomed pressure reprieve, it was a brilliant day.”
Cwm Bakery said “Good different variety of stalls, good amount of people, weather was good which helped, very, very busy in our bakery and cafe, and we did really well. Looking forward to next year!”
Jon Richards of Fields of Magnetic Horizon Record Shop commented “Very encouraged, pleased to see it was very busy, I benefited from lots of new customers coming into the shop looking for records!”
For more information on our other upcoming events scheduled in our Winter events programme, please visit: https://www.visitcaerphilly.com/en/events/
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