Mason Moore | Hinckley Reporter | 18 August 2020

HINCKLEY and Bosworth Borough Council bosses have made the sad but safe decision to cancel some of the large and major annual events which were originally lined up to take place.

The public safety measures have been put in place by Borough Council bosses for the remainder of their events this year, to help protect the public and keep them safe during this ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Whilst large events have been scrapped by the Council, some smaller socially-distanced events are still going ahead with COVID-secure safety measures and precautions in place.

The cancelled events

September’s Battle of Britain Service will be a small virtual service commemorating the 80^th anniversary of the Battle of Britain will be livestreamed on social media.

In a similar fashion to the Battle of Britain service, the Remembrance Sunday Service will be a smaller virtual service that the Borough Council will livestream to Hinckley residents through their official social media channels.

This Christmas, the Christmas lights switch-on event, tin hat fair, and fireworks display have been scrapped and will not go ahead this year.

The Council have now reluctantly decided to cancel the ‘Proms in the Park’ event, which they were aiming to make an adapted COVID-secure event.

The Proms in the Park event would have been held inside of Hinckley’s Hollycroft Park amphitheatre.

Simon Jones, Cultural Services Manager for Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, said: “We are all incredibly disappointed as a lot of hard work goes into the planning of these events, and we appreciate the value of the Christmas lights switch on event to the town and to the community, but public safety and preventing the spread of Covid-19 has to come first.

“We are determined to celebrate Christmas in the town in a way that will support our local economy, so we will be looking to arrange some smaller events and other activities such as Christmas street entertainment to celebrate Christmas and enable visitors to enjoy festive shopping safely in a Covid-secure way this year.”

Saved upcoming events

Hinckley will still see a fair share of socially-distanced live entertainment taking place this year.

Open air music performances for the ‘Music in the Mead’ event will take place every Saturday throughout the month of this September.

The Music in the Mead event performances will be held inside of the bandstand at Hinckley’s Argents Mead park.

Heritage Weekends will be retained and still go ahead in September.

In October, a specially-adapted version of the ‘fang-tastic’ Spooktacular Saturday Halloween event will take place. Spooktacular Saturday will offer activities and entertainment for families to enjoy throughout Hinckley’s town centre.

Steve Wegerif, Director of Hinckley BID, revealed that the BID will also be working on some fun in the town centre during the October half term.

In the run up to Christmas this year, there will be plenty of COVID-safe activities and entertainment on offer for residents and town-goers.

A few of the events on offer include: Weekly street entertainment, a tour of the Christmas lights for older residents, and Hinckley BID will host their annual ‘Santa’s Amazing Grotto’ for younger residents.

Although the fireworks display, tin hat fair and Christmas light switch-on were cancelled, the Council will still celebrate Christmas in the town by putting up a Christmas tree in Market Place and Christmas lights around the town centre.

Executive Member of Culture and Town Centres at the Borough Council, Councillor Keith Nichols added: “This pandemic has affected lives and livelihoods worldwide this year as towns and cities everywhere have been forced to postpone events, but public safety is an absolute priority.

“The faster the virus is beaten, the sooner we can all get back to doing the things we enjoy doing with others safely.

“We’re all disappointed about this year but we are really optimistic about the future.

“Our popular town centre events will be back bigger and better than ever just as soon we can and in the meantime the team is working hard to organise events, activities and entertainment that people can enjoy safely this year.”