Brighton Christmas market to be 'bigger and better'

The inaugural market and festival in Brighton last year faced criticism after being plagued by a series of issues and complaints due to noise.

David Hill, managing director of Hove business E3 Events, said this year's event will not feature a fairground, there will be fewer bars, more retail stands and a smaller big wheel.

The event will also move from Old Steine and Valley Gardens to near St Peter’s Church.

Mr Hill said: “The market will be bigger and better than last year and we are focused on developing a really magical, traditional, high-quality market in the city centre.

“People can look forward to traditional wooden cabins, lovely decorations, and something really festive.”

A smaller big wheel will feature at this year's Christmas market

The organisers have partnered with a German company behind the Christmas market at the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park to make Brighton’s event this year a success.

Mr Hill also said that the market’s performance events will be moving into venues across the city.

“We want to support local venues, we want this Christmas festival to be city-wide, and we want visitors coming into the city to visit all our tourist attractions and the retail areas of the city,” he said.

However, the founder of a residents’ association has expressed concern that the market will not learn lessons from “last year’s debacle”.

Gary Farmer from the Old Steine Community Association said that noise from the festival last year was like “having your neighbours hold a house party every night for 36 nights”, with a fairground blaring music late into the evening.

Gary Farmer complained about noise from last year's Christmas festival

He said: “I do not trust that the grass will be returfed or reseeded with any urgency or professionalism, lessons from last year’s debacle will not have been learned.

“The event was an embarrassment, poorly executed and hideously unremarkable in every way - those who did make the effort left underwhelmed and despondent.

“The issues raised have not been addressed. The mantra should be less is more, with quality over quantity being at the forefront of planning.

“Once again we will hang our heads in shame as we endure an anti-climatic festival of tarpaulin, wire fencing, diesel-powered generators, junk food and slurry.”

Mr Hill said that Old Steine will not feature in plans for this year’s festival, with no plans currently to use Valley Gardens, where the market was last year.

He said: “Currently, our plans will be built on hard ground, so we don’t touch the grass, and there isn’t going to be a major fairground in the way that we did that last year.

“If we do use grassy areas, we will look at a much more robust ground protection from the start and we will have very clear reinstatement plans before we even go on to the site.”

Mr Hill said that he will contact Mr Farmer and residents in the area around the festival well in advance of the event taking place in November.