If, like me, you are someone who’s favourite part of the festive season is the weeks of build-up and ever-growing anticipation, then a trip to your local Christmas market is a staple every year. For the residents of Brighton, a major hurdle stands in the way of achieving this, as the city’s Christmas market has once again been cancelled. Over the last three years, Brighton has struggled to put together a well-organised market alongside other festive events. Last year’s ‘Winter Fayre’ was a poorly advertised, hastily put-together, and a lacklustre attempt to fill the gap left by the year before.
In 2023, the organisers of the 2022 Christmas Festival, E3 Events, pulled out of their contract a year early, citing pandemic-related financial issues as the primary reason. With the festival leaving the city earlier, there was nothing set up to fill its place outside St Peter’s Church. The church green was quiet throughout the entire Christmas period, making the city feel bleak and cold when it should have felt warm, friendly, and charming. As a University of Sussex student in my first year living in the city, the lack of any festivities made Brighton the last place I wanted to be in the month of December. Thankfully, a replacement market was organised for the next year.
The 2024 Winter Fayre, held in Valley Gardens, was organised by business owners Annie-Marie Chebib, Lisa Norman, and Becky Stevens. However, the trio struggled to bring a cohesive event to Brighton, with several factors hindering their efforts. The Winter Fayre faced winter weather, with heavy rain and wind affecting it throughout. The combination of poor weather and ineffective advertising (no one I asked knew there had been a Christmas market in Brighton last year) left the Fayre falling flat, with the only hope being that it would improve in the next rendition.
Unfortunately, the Winter Fayre ended up facing the same fate as the Christmas Festival that came before it. The trio of business owners organising the fair decided to take time off from putting on the city’s main festive celebration, leaving the Brighton and Hove council with no option but to announce that there will be no Christmas market, or a similar event, for 2025. This decision has once again left Brighton feeling even colder than it should in the run-up to Christmas, and raises significant questions regarding the privatisation of festive events throughout the city.
With the only other major Christmas activity available to the people of the city being ice skating – something not everyone can easily do, or do at all – it has to be asked: should it be the council’s responsibility to organise events such as the city’s Christmas market? If we want our city to be a hub of Christmas fun and joy, then surely it is the job of those in charge to ensure that all its citizens experience the charm of the festive period just like everybody else does.
Another article you may enjoy: https://thebadgeronline.com/2025/12/get-your-craft-on-in-brighton/
