The City of Lincoln Council has moved Lincoln’s Christmas Market online this year, because of the coronavirus pandemic.
It will run throughout the Christmas period until January.
The decision was made by the council earlier this year because the event couldn’t be made covid-safe. It has not yet confirmed any plans for the market’s return next year.
New research claims that Lincoln will lose out on an estimated £8.5m due to the market being cancelled.
The market last year had around 250,000 visitors from Dec 5 to Dec 8, and if similar numbers came this year it would be impossible to socially distance.
The market has been held every year since 1982, with this year being its 38th anniversary. It began with just 11 stalls. Last year, it featured more than 120 independent businesses, high street brands, traders, as well as some of visitors’ favourite returning stalls.
You can still “visit” stalls and view their produce, just through the market’s new website.
This year’s online market has recipes, tutorials, as well as printable colouring pages and letters to Santa. You can also watch past performances from previous years.
This year Rock Choir, led locally by Kat Tye, have published their Zoom performance from earlier last month in hopes of spreading some Christmas joy. They have previously made regular appearances at the Christmas market.
Daniel Byrne, from the Doughnotts branch in Lincoln’s Cornhill Quarter, which had a stall last year, said: “it’s thankfully not had too much of an impact because we’ve got the physical store on Cornhill, and we’ve launched Doughnotts Delivered to ship doughnuts across the country which has plugged the gap.”