The Manchester Christmas Markets have been torn to shreds by several users on Tripadvisor this year.
Complaining about the huge festive event has become as traditional as the event itself for Mancs – too crowded, too expensive, too disruptive, etc etc.
Previous complaints have usually centred around the choice of traders working out of the market stalls, with people objecting to the repetitive pattern of bratwurst, mulled wine, ornament.
Many have also had a moan that too many traders travel over from Europe, and say that the markets take too much footfall away from the year-round local businesses positioned nearby.
So in recent years, the markets have started to go through a bit of a transformation.
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The main one would be relocating down to Piccadilly Gardens, where a huge wooden festive village has been built, this year with live music stage, apres-ski-style bar, and a festive tipi.
Piccadilly Gardens Christmas Markets. Credit: The Manc Group
This is also home to a huge proportion of the food traders.
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There’s even a secret bar here, hidden from view by a Narnia-like wardrobe entrance.
And as time goes on, more and more of the food traders are local to Manchester (this year including Parmogeddon, Oi Dumplings, Triple B and Yum Yum.
The Manchester Christmas Markets have listened to feedback and gone a bit more local overall, so you’d expect everyone would be pleased – but of course they’re not.
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One scathing and lengthy review on Tripadvisor said: “Went on a day trip by coach to the Christmas Market, having been four years ago and LOVED it…sorry, but the difference between that experience and this year’s is like night and day.
“First of all, whose daft idea was it to have the market scattered across nine different locations? People who aren’t familiar with Manchester won’t know where all these locations are!
“The first part of the market I came across was a collection of food stalls, the bulk of them not displaying prices – is that legal? – and the entire set-up looked like a building site. No festive atmosphere at all, and sadly this continued the further I walked.
“Gone was the wonderful variety of Christmas ornaments and gifts, replaced by food and drink stalls and, strangely, a stall selling wooden garden furniture. There is nothing remotely Christmassy about an overpriced Kingdom of Sweets stall, and when I came across a second one several minutes later I gave up and killed time in a Wetherspoons until my coach left to take everyone home.
Credit: Manchester Christmas Markets ( via Twitter )
“I wasn’t the only person let down by the experience, either; when an elderly lady boarded the coach on its way home, she was heard to mutter, “Well, I’d have been ready to go home three hours ago.” I’m writing this trip off as a learning experience – and what I learned is that I won’t be going to this market again next year.”
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A parent who visited said: “Where to start. This was my families first and last visit to Manchester, The Christmas Market felt very poorly planned with stalls not in one area. People kept knocking into my children manners seem to be missing in Manchester as a whole.”
Someone else wrote in a one-star review: “Ridiculous prices, paid £6 for a hot dog for my son & was then charges £1 extra for tomato sauce, sorry but that is taking the mick.. usual stores have gone and replaced with food, drink or overpriced large goods. The Christmas feeling just wasn’t there this year :(.”
Another person said: “I visited the Christmas Market at the weekend with a friend and it felt more like a food festival than a Market. No price lists displayed. Utter waste of time. Cheaper to go the ones abroad.”
One reviewer said: “Nothing at all Christmassy, pre-covid they was lovely stalls seeming Christmas ornaments ets, now it’s all good and drink mostly £15 for 2 mugs of hot chocolate, cocktails £9 for a snowball just pure greed, very disappointed, definitely won’t be back this year or in near future.”
Someone else wrote: “All about overpriced food and repetitive stalls. Nothing European about it and not what it once was. £10 for a sausage save your money and try a market in actual Europe.”
Featured image: The Manc Group
Christmas
Chester Zoo reveals new plans for ‘spectacular’ winter light trail
Emily Sergeant
Chester Zoo has revealed new plans for a “spectacular” lights trail this winter, and it sounds even more magical than ever.
Is it too early to mention the ‘C’ word? Probably, considering it is the middle of July… but despite how far in advance it may seem, Chester Zoo has wasted absolutely no time at all in revealing exciting plans for the return of its massively-popular lights trail this winter.
Lanterns and Light is by far one of the UK’s largest charity zoo’s best-loved events each year, so it’s absolutely no surprise to hear it’s making a 2024 comeback.
Set to feature a raft of new additions, and therefore more animal lantern puppets than ever before, the zoo is promising that this year’s Lanterns and Light will be even longer and “more exciting” than what visitors saw in back in 2023 – with the event running all the way through to New Year’s Day for the first time in its history.
The zoo will be teaming up with entertainment giants, Sony Music, once again to deliver this year’s beloved festive spectacle.
Chester Zoo has revealed new plans for the return of its ‘spectacular’ winter light trail / Credit: Chester Zoo
Opening to the public for some festive family-friendly fun from 15 November, organisers say visitors should expect to take a journey through a number of distinct and vibrant lands, where they’ll encounter an exciting lineup of costumed characters and new animal puppets – including meerkats, peacocks, red pandas, and snow leopards.
An “incredible” new soundscape will add to the immersive experience, while animal lanterns such as dragonflies hovering over water, elephants in permafrost, and exotic birds flying overhead, decorate the route of the stunning light trail.
If the lights and sculptures themselves weren’t impressive enough as it is, there’ll also be a whole new festive menu on offer at food and drink markets stationed in various locations within the zoo too.
🎄Christmas is JUST around the corner!❄️
More LIGHTS, more LANTERNS, more ANIMAL PUPPETS, more MAGIC, more of EVERYTHING you love…
Don’t forget to greet Father Christmas in his workshop!🎅 Tickets to Lanterns & Light are selling fast, so get them while you still can👇 pic.twitter.com/B8cmwrLr76
Heidi Budden, who is the Marketing Manager at Chester Zoo, expects this year’s Lanterns and Light to be a “wonderful evening” and says it gives visitors the chance to “play a part in helping wildlife to thrive”.
“We’ve made the light trail even longer and packed it with exciting new elements,” she added.
“There’ll be more animal lanterns than ever before, and never-before-seen interactive puppets including energetic meerkats, colourful peacocks and playful snow leopards, all joined by many of the family favourites from years gone by that people have grown to love.”
There’ll be more animal lantern puppets than ever before at this year’s festive spectacle / Credit: Chester Zoo
Lanterns and Light will return to Chester Zoo from Friday 15 November 2024, and run on selected evenings right through to New Year’s Day – with tickets now on sale.
Ticket sales will help to support the zoo in its conservation efforts to protect some of the planet’s most threatened species.
The lyrics to Auld Lang Syne for New Year’s Eve, and what the song means
Daisy Jackson
The clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, the confetti is thrown, the kisses are exchanged, and then up starts Auld Lang Syne and you realise, once again, that you don’t know the lyrics to the iconic song.
This classic song is traditionally sung as we welcome in a new year, but you may (like us) find yourself singing the words as ‘dah daaah dah dah daaah dah dah, dah dah daaah dah Auld Lang Syne.”
Well it’s time to stop that behaviour and learn yourselves the Auld Lang Syne lyrics, quick time, before we hit 2024.
The text of the song is actually from a Robert Burns poem, penned way back in 1788 and based on an old Scottish folk song.
It was set to a tune a decade later, and since then has been recorded by dozens of different artists.
Auld Lang Syne can loosely translate as ‘old long since’, or ‘days gone by’ or ‘old times’.
So its meaning roughly is ‘for the sale of old times’.
There are longer versions of the song, but the lyrics to the most commonly-played version of Auld Lang Syne are below.
So hold hands with your loved ones, crack open the champers, and ring in a very happy new year.
What are the lyrics to Auld Lang Syne?
Fireworks on New Year’s Eve, when the song Auld Lang Syne is traditionally sung
Should auld acquaintance be forgot And never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot And the days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear For auld lang syne We’ll drink a cup of kindness yet For the sake of auld lang syne
And surely you will buy your cup And surely I’ll buy mine! We’ll take a cup of kindness yet For the sake of auld lang syne
We two have paddled in the stream From morning sun till night The seas between us Lord and swell Since the days of auld lang syne
For old acquaintance be forgot And never brought to mind Should old acquaintance be forgot For the sake of auld lang syne?
For old acquaintance be forgot And never brought to mind Should old acquaintance be forgot In the days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear For auld lang syne We’ll drink a cup of kindness yet For the sake of auld lang syne