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BRUM XMAS MARKET PASSES TWO MILLION MARK

18-12-2007

The Stirrer was on the receiving end of a cheery call last night from Birmingham Council leader Mike Whitby  who wanted to share the news that the city’s Christmas Market has already passed the two million visitor threshold – a 40% rise on last year’s attendance.

Whitby is right to be ebullient about the event’s success.  Despite sniping from homegrown traders down by the Bull Ring there’s no doubt that the visitors from Frankfurt give Brum a special aura at Christmas time which couldn’t be achieved by wrapping a bit of tinsel around what we already have.

Former Conservative Cabinet member Nigel Dawkins once famously floated the idea of scrapping the German Market and replacing it with a Dickensian one – but remarkably this galvanised the city into realising what it had, and over the past few years it has gone from strength to strength.

Yes, there’s over-priced tat aplenty, and the gluhwein can give the whole event a romantic gloss – but Birmingham without the market now seems unthinkable.

Stirrer blogger Richard Nevin welcomed its arrival in November (see link here) and it seems that plenty of you agree.