Olivia PowellBournemouth Christmas Market returns for its third year alongside a custom built, two-storey ‘Alpine Lodge Bar’.
The Christmas market has been owned by Seventa Events since 2017, after it won the Market contract. Since the events agency took over, the main facus was updating and re-theming the festivities to ‘bring something new to Bournemouth residents and to attract crowds from further afield’.
Construction for The Market started two weeks before the official launch on 15 November, following months of preparation. The build, managed by Seventa, worked closely with local partners including Mar-Key Group, C.E.S Ltd and Innovative Hire.
Seventa Events and Innovative Hire founder and director Simon Brooks said: “This is the third year of our five year market contract with the council and we are building on more success each time which is largely due to our close working relationships with our suppliers. There is a fantastic atmosphere and buzz at the Market this year and I’m extremely proud of the team for all of their efforts on this huge project.”
A major feature for the Christmas Market is The Alpine Lodge Bar, a bespoke temporary structure built for the market by Innovative Hire. The Alpine Lodge Bar was constructed by two 40ft container bars joined and topped by a marquee structure, which was provided and installed by Mar-Key Group, a local partner to the market. The bar has the capacity to host 180 downstairs, 100 upstairs and an additional 250 in its surrounding outdoor area. The structure also boasts two large bars as well as rustic, ski-themed furniture and décor.
The 40 trading huts, theming and props were also all provided by Innovative Hire and have lit up the centre of Bournemouth via C.E.S providing generators across the entirety of the site. The market sees 3m visitors over the 49 days of trading, and has seen almost a 50% uplift of visitors year on year.