How did you get involved with the market?

I have worked with Christmas markets for years, starting at Manchester city council, when I put on the first German themed UK Christmas market. In 1999 when I started it was with just 17 traders. In the 15 years I worked there, I helped build it to over 380 traders and when I left it had received worldwide recognition as one of the best Christmas markets in the UK. After such a long time, I really wanted to develop and grow something a bit different. Something smaller, but with focus on building a community and enhancing local businesses. This is where Chester came into play! Despite limited expansion possibilities, we try to blend seamlessly into the local offerings that make a festive time.

What is your role in bringing this Christmas delight to life?

I am a managing director of Chester Market Ltd, started in 2018 to take over the general management of the market. I do everything, from planning and layouts to coordinating with stakeholders. There is not a part of the market I have not been involved with!

Why is Chester important to you?

Having spent so many years developing Manchester Christmas Market, I wanted to work on something that wasn’t just about being the biggest but really added to the local community. Chester being just a stop down the road offered the perfect location to help develop and focus on delivering opportunities to local independent and artisan traders. I loved the sense of community that already exists in Chester city and really wanted to bring that to the market as well.

What is the future of Chester Christmas Market?

This is hard to answer, because most of my year is spent constantly considering and trying new ideas to improve the market. But my biggest focus has always been building an accessible and happy festive environment, where people can visit locally or as tourists and still feel completely at home. My aim every year is how we can build and grow with our family of traders and improve out partnerships with our wonderful neighbours.

One of my proudest moments:

This goes right back to the beginning, but originally the big tree was to be moved out of the market to allow for a different set up. I championed the decision to move it back and organised the layout accordingly so we can have our beautiful huge tree as the heart of our market. I am also very proud of our relationships with our traders, in particular those who come back year on year and put their heart, money and time in developing new collection pieces or products just for our customers. We may be small, but we try and keep each stall different to the next to ensure there are plenty of options for our customers, so seeing traders working with us to make this a better shopping experience really highlights the family feeling for both the customers and the traders.

How did you get involved with the market? I actually started the market as a trader with my sister. If anyone remembers the Happy Pancake stall, that was us! My sister had worked in the bar for a couple of years previously and we decided to bring our catering to the market in 2014. And the rest is history!

What is your role in bringing this Christmas delight to life? My official title is Market Manager & Organiser, which makes a really fun job sound so serious. My role is to make sure everything happens, from booking traders and chasing insurances to the more fun festive stuff like making the selfie stations and ensuring there are plenty of twinkly lights. Throughout the year I work on ideas and admin but during the event I enjoy being ‘boots on the ground’ to make sure everything runs smoothly and feels festive.

Why is Chester important to you? Chester has marked so many moments in my life and has so many wonderful memories associated with it. Not only have I grown professionally, but my family has grown alongside that. My boys love the town and the market, they get so excited to come visit me at work and for me that really encapsulates everything I love about Christmas and Chester.

What is the future of Chester Christmas Market? One of my biggest aims is to keep developing the markets environmental policy to help us keep the market as green as possible, something we are taking a big step towards with our festive mugs this year!

One of my proudest moments: In my new role, I think one of my proudest moments was when our hard work was recognised in Condé Nast in 2024, as we were listed amongst the greats of UK Christmas markets. It really showed that our efforts had been paying off! This felt like a trophy lifting win and keeps me inspired to improve every year.  On a more personal note, from my time trading at the market, I used to love how many people would come up each year and tell me it wasn’t really Christmas until they had had a mulled wine and a pancake at the market. With two young boys myself, I have always loved those little moments of tradition and that is exactly the magic I try to create each year.

How did you get involved with the market? I started working for Marketing Chesire in 2015 as my first freelance role. Previously I had helped organise and run Manchester Christmas Market, but I wanted to get involved in something I could help develop from the ground up. My role was to help plan, organise and manage the market for Marketing Chesire and then the later organisers up until I passed the reins to Kyna in 2023.

What is your role in bringing this Christmas delight to life? Since stepping back in 2023, I have stayed on as a social media content creator. I organise and plan all the videos and posts that go out every year, so thank you if you have ever left me a little comment!

Why is Chester important to you? I fell in love with Chester long before I worked there. I love the welcoming and friendly nature of all the people plus the great food you can find! I adore the history and stunning architecture which balances perfectly with the picturesque walks along the river Dee. The opportunity I was given to help run the market was also hugely influential on my confidence, I had the experience, but this was my first solo development, and it was amazing to watch the market grow to bigger and better steps each year knowing I had helped it to achieve that.

What is the future of Chester Christmas Market? Well, in my current role my future is to keep developing and growing our social media following! I really want to highlight not our how lovely the market is, but just how nice Chester city is and hopefully encourage more people to visit each year.

One of my proudest moments: This is such a hard one to pick. An obvious one is the opening day of my first market build. I had been on site for almost a week managing the building of huts and moving in of traders, so seeing the lights turn on and the public starting to turn up was a really special moment. Another that comes to mind is how we came back after Covid. It was a time of great uncertainty for all and there was a lot of concern and worry about the future, but we pushed hard and rallied as best we could and now we are stronger than ever. My final one was probably how many lovely and heartfelt messages I received from different traders I worked with over my years there when I stepped away, it made me so happy to know my work was appreciated and that I would always have friends at the market.