A free Christmas experience is being created for Barrow this year.
A BarrowFull of Christmas invites people to explore Barrow’s decorated town hall and follow a starry festive trail in Barrow Park, catching the Christmas vintage bus between the two.
The town hall will be filled with performances, games, photo opportunities and familiar characters to meet along the way. Families and friends can then warm up by buying festive refreshments and snuggle up for a Christmas story.
In Barrow Park, with its extensive landscaped gardens, paths, boating lake and miniature train, families following the trail can enjoy artistic winter scenes and meet some familiar and not-so-familiar faces in and around the installations.
A BarrowFull of Christmas will take place on Saturday December 2 and Sunday December 3 from 11am to 5pm.
The event has been designed by the BarrowFull Advisors, a team of local people interested in creativity.
Mark Curwen, BarrowFull Advisor, said: “I’m massively proud to have helped programme A BarrowFull of Christmas this year, supporting the BarrowFull team.
“Since the start BarrowFull have been active throughout the community helping to generate many creative and diverse events as well as bringing out the inner creativity many Barrovians didn’t realise they had.
“The fact that this year the staff are able to hand over the direction of the popular Christmas event to local people is testament to this process and it really feels like a very special and unique opportunity.”
Hundreds of people enjoyed BarrowFull’s A Furness Yule in 2021 and last year’s A BarrowFull of Christmas. It has recently been shortlisted for the Best Family Arts Activity in the Fantastic for Families Awards 2023 for its summer Playcations events.
BarrowFull’s creative director, Daniel Tyler-McTighe said, “It will be a tale of two event spaces with the Christmassy vintage bus whisking people between Barrow’s stunning town hall and the spacious park.
“This year we’ll be joining the public in a celebration of Christmases past, present and future in what promises to be a feel-good creative experience for everyone to come together and enjoy.”
Almost everything to discover will be undercover but visitors are encouraged to wrap up warm and dry to walk between the different locations. Refreshments will be available to buy.
The event, sponsored by BAE Systems, includes creative artworks, multimedia and interactive experiences with theatre, juggling and music and are all exciting and fun – a BarrowFull load of fun – for everyone to enjoy.
The BarrowFull team is providing a free accessible taxi service for anyone who needs transport.
The service can be pre-booked from any address within Barrow town by emailing [email protected] or phoning 07840 730521. There is also a free shuttle bus that will be running between the sites throughout the weekend. Full details can be found on the BarrowFull facebook page.
A shuttle bus will run between the two sites starting at 11.45 from the town hall.
Westmorland and Furness Council and MKM Building Supplies are supporting the event.
