It's officially Christmas in Newtown

Newtown’s Christmas festivities kick off today with a festive open air performance, street entertainment, stalls and the official switch on of the Christmas lights.

Today’s event will include a performance of A Christmas Carol through the main streets.

High Street will be closed to traffic.

"Newtown town centre will once again host a fantastic, large scale, open-air Christmas-themed performance for the whole community," said a spokesperson.

"Following on from the unprecedented success of last year’s re-imaging of the Newtown Lights with a spectacular staging of The Nativity, this year, award-winning community theatre company, Rebel Alliance, are swapping alpacas, donkeys and sheep, for singing, dancing and giant flying puppets.

"Rebel Alliance’s production of ‘A Christmas Carol’ is a family-friendly re-telling of Charles Dickens’ classic festive story which follows Ebenezer Scrooge’s journey, guided by three ghostly spirits who visit and influence him on Christmas Eve."

Creative Director, Tim Parkes, said that he chose this story for this year’s Newtown Lights event because, like ‘The Nativity’ before it, ‘A Christmas Carol’ is a simple story which instils a powerful and important message about humanity, redemption and the true spirit of this festive time of year. 

"Together with Newtown Town Council, the expansive group which make up Rebel Alliance have been working on bringing a truly magical sense of occasion to the Newtown Lights event for the second year running," added the spokesperson.

Organisers are anticipating even bigger audiences than last year’s 2,000 local residents, and so the venue has changed to High Street, with audience access from the town park and Bear Lanes Shopping Centre.

"Under Tim Parkes’ watchful eye, this ever growing group of volunteer performers, young people, backstage personnel, schools and local businesses, are promising an unprecedented retelling of this classic Christmas story, the likes of which Newtown, nor anywhere, has ever seen before," said the town council spokesperson.

"This epic presentation will then be concluded by a countdown grand finale which, Tim has assured, will put last year’s unexpected and wonderful sudden snowfall to shame."

First glimpses of this atmospheric Victorian world being brought to life are already available in Bear Lanes, where shops have begun to embrace the magical world of frosted glass, oil lamps and festive cheer.

Organisers are keen to invite all shops and businesses in the town to get involved and enter a ‘Victorian Christmas Window Competition.' There will also be a host of community group stalls in Bear Lanes on the night from 5:00pm, so do wander through, have a look, and support some excellent local causes.

Although the show runs from 6pm to 7.15pm, High Street will be closed to vehicles from midday on Saturday, 30 November.

This is to allow construction, transforming the town centre into an open-air community theatrical venue.

"It is therefore recommended that businesses likely to be affected consider any deliveries scheduled for that day and ensure alternative arrangements are in place. The road will then re-open at midnight," said the town council spokesperson.