Yes, it was many hands that pushed the traditional black plunger handle down into the big red box that brought Marlborough’s High Street Christmas to light. TV’s Paul Martin, ably assisted by his children, Andrew Barnett, the newly crowned ‘Citizen of the Year’ and Mayor Lisa Farrell and helped by the large and vocal crowd surounding the stage outside of Lloyds Bank in the High Street counted down and then pushed the plunger down.
An evening of celebration marked the start of Marlborough’s Christmas. A closed High Street with many stalls and fairground attractions and many shops staying open late to take advantage of the crowd bought a festival atmosphere to the town to kick off the Christmas season.
This year’s ‘Citizen of the Year’ award went to Andrew Barnett for his longstanding and committed dedication of twenty five years to Marlborough Scouts. Paul Martin of BBC’s ‘Flog it’ fame starred in the switch-on and led the countdown and BBC Wiltshire’s Mark Jones with Nigel Kerton MC’d the evening keeping everything on track and introducing all the acts who entertained the crowd.
Santa made an eagerly awaited appeareance in the Town Hall, encouraged to attend by Marlborough Rotary and exciting the long queue of enthralled children waiting to meet this legendary figure in person.
Whilst The Vooz rocked the crowd at the end of the celebration the St John’s Band followed by the Marlborough Academy of Dance & Drama kicked the proceedings off with performances by Eleanor Williams and Kirsty McLean and the Marlborough Community Choir, all bringing a note of Christmas cheer to the town to start the season.
