Sunday 24 December 2017

Museum lights up with Christmas fair

THE inaugural Barnard Castle Christmas Festival, which was launched on Wednesday, December 13, has been hailed a success despite some technical issues caused by bad weather on the opening night. 

A traditional fair in The Bowes Museum grounds welcomed visitors with food, fairground amusements, rides, games and entertaining family activities. Santa welcomed children to his magical wonderland grotto, while an elves’ workshop, provided craft activities.

The museum’s Christmas market was extended this year, opening on the afternoon of December 15 and running all day on Saturday and Sunday. More than 100 stallholders offered an array of original locally-sourced Christmas produce and gifts, along with live music, seasonal entertainment, prize draws from Smooth Radio and the popular park and ride Santa buses.

About 5,000 people visited the Bowes Museum fair and market over the five days.

Light sculpture installations at The Bowes Museum and The Witham generated a trail between the two venues.

Around the Campfire by Morwenna Catt started-off the trail in the museum park. Over by Stuart Langley, was a bold incarnation of a typically fleeting natural phenomena – a rainbow.

Helena Doyle’s Pagoda was a stunning installation, changing colour in response to visitor interaction. Lassoo the Moon by the artist Lucy McDonnell was a striking visual spectacle and realistic high definition representation of the moon removed from its orbit and anchored to the ground. Steve Messam, the Teesdale installation artist, created a fitting finale to the trail with TreeBubble, a large-scale textile installation around an ancient oak tree. Meanwhile, Heart of Stars by the artist Stephen Newby was well received by visitors to The Witham over the five days of the festival. The large scale suspended heart with a surface made up of 11,000 mirror tiles reflected thousands of spots of light in fantastical, swirling and changing patterns

The Witham screened the family favourite classic film Miracle on 34th Street on December 14, and the comedian Chris Ramsey and two performances of A Christmas Carol by the Castle Players were sell-out shows.

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