Boldmere Christmas Festival is 'busiest ever' with 10,000 attending

The festival, which incorporated the Christmas lights switch-on, took place on Sunday and attracted more than 10,000 visitors.

Just under 5,000 watched the lights being switched on Perry, the Commonwealth Games Mascot.

Paul Long, Festival Director, said “We were absolutely delighted with the event.

"It’s the best one we’ve ever had with a Ferris Wheel and Perry attracting more visitors than we’ve ever experienced before."

"We had intelligence from our security team that other local events had seen bigger than usual attendances and so we had a contingency plan in place for if we exceeded our capacity which we did have to implement.

"While it was fantastic to have so many people enjoying the festivities, we did have to ask people to wait at the entrances at 5pm for other people to leave before we could allow them in.

"We really appreciate their understanding and are sorry that we couldn’t accommodate everybody who wanted to attend."

He added: “Perry took a trip on the Ferris Wheel towering over Boldmere and I was lucky enough to go up in the carriage next to him to take some photos and I was amazed at the 360 degree view of Boldmere and of how many people were enjoying themselves down below."

"Perry also brought along the Commonwealth Games Roadshow which enabled people to find out more about the Commonwealth Games that will be coming to Birmingham, and in particular the Triathlon in Boldmere in July."

"He was a massive hit with both children and adults with his vivid colours and fun poses.

"Prior to the light switch on ceremony, we were able to pay tribute to Vic Wolfindale who was a member of our organising team and was much loved for her enthusiasm and crazily fun nature."

Vic sadly died from an unexpected heart attack aged just 39 and left behind her husband Richard and children Jack and Francesca.

"We wanted to do something special for them and so we invited them onto the stage while a tribute was given and a round of applause for Vic," Paul added.

“Cllr Terry Wood who is the current Town Mayor wished everybody a happy Christmas before Terri from Switch Radio led a countdown to Perry turning on the Christmas Lights. The atmosphere at the point of Perry turning on the lights was electric.

“If I try to thank everybody, I’ll miss somebody out, but we do want to extend our gratitude to Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council for providing the infrastructure funding and Sutton Rose Luxury Care Home for sponsoring the main stage."

"Our team of both regular and new volunteers were fantastic including the 34 volunteers from Bishop Vesey Grammar School who gave up their morning to help setup for the event.

“We have to look at ways of making the festival sustainable for the future and we were blown away with the generosity of the Boldmere community and visitors to Boldmere who donated just over £5,500 at the entrances."

Organisers are happy to hear from people who would like to volunteer at future festivals by visiting www.boldmere.org/volunteer or emailing volunteer@boldmere.org