Dickensian Evening
Dickensian Evening is truly a magical, festive experience and is an important date in Tavistock’s calendar. It is held annually, on the first Friday in December.
So What Happens?
The main streets are closed to traffic and it heralds the real start of Christmas festivities in the Town. All of the shops are open until 9pm, and the Chamber of Commerce organises a whole selection of different activities – choirs, brass bands, a woodwind band, a fire-eater, jugglers, Morris dancers – to name but a few. The Town looks incredibly olde worlde with the amazing Christmas Lights illuminating the streets above. Many of the shop-keepers dress up in old fashioned Victoriana costumes and hand out hot mulled wine to their regular customers as a way of thanking them for their custom throughout the year.
It is a very nostalgic, relaxed, safe and highly entertaining evening. Shoppers can visit the very diverse selection of shops through the Town – where some very different and unique Christmas gifts can be found. The whole event is a contrasting experience to the traditional frenetic, pressurised visit to the city centre shops.
Dickensian Evening attracts around 12,000 visitors the Town and is therefore an excellent opportunity to show the Town off at its best. Many people who have never been to Tavistock before end up falling in love with it on Dickensian Evening, and visit regularly thereafter. In addition, for the retailers and locals alike, it is probably everyone’s favourite day across the year. It is a delightful evening which shouldn't be missed.
The event is stage managed and funded in its entirety by the Chamber of Commerce. Local businesses and retailers contribute very generously to ensuring that sufficient funds are raised every year to stage the event. It requires around £9,000 a year to pay for road closures, policing, highways management, insurance, entertainers, Christmas lighting, etc. So it is vitally important that everyone within the Town makes a contribution.
Previous Supporters of Dickensian Evening
| A Scent-Sation Abbey Mead Dental Practice Active Co Allan Dolan Angus McPhie Artframe Gallery Barclays Bank Bedford Hotel Bookstop Brigid Foley Broadley Speaking Browns Hotel Café Liaison Cantonese Kitchen Chung Ying Classic Creations Colin Smith & Co Condy Mathias Costa Coffee Crebers Cultural Charm D & M Tools Dartmoor Country Clothes Dartmoor Photographic Donellas Dukes Eastgate Café and Brasserie Edinburgh Woollen Mill Ekraj Limited Encore Fairway Furniture Farley Menswear Fashion Direct Food Dreckly Foulston’s Francis Clark Accountants Funky Food Deli GB Property Management Georgi M Shoes |
Georgina’s Pets Harford Bridge Holiday Park Hazard House of Cards Howell’s of Tavistock HSBC Inside Out Jack Chams Jelly John Baldwin Jewellers Kaleidoscope Kountry Kit La Caché Lake Pharmacy Lawsons Lloyds TSB Lynbridge Dental Practice Mainly Stationery Mansbridge and Balment Mayflower Galleries Mike Hooper Architects Morris Brothers Morrisons N R Ellis New Pantry Newell’s Travel No 13 Original Barber Shop Oxfam Palmers of Tavistock Pebbles Philip Hartnoll Pillars Newsagents Potter Baker Accountants Quinns Menswear R B L Social Club Randell Cox RBS/NatWest Ltd Revolution |
Rhyme in Tyme S J P Motor Services Scruples Simon Powell Commercial South West Crafts Sponzis St Luke’s Hospice Shops Steps T J Fish and Chip Shop TaVi Tavistaff Tavistock Business Solutions Tavistock Cycles Tavistock Golf Club Tavistock Launderette Tavistock Newspapers Tavistock Service Station Tavistock TIC Tavistock Town Council Tavistock Tyres and Exhaust Tavy Textiles Tavysoft Ltd. The Market Garden The Original Pasty House The Shambles The Works Hair and Beauty Tile Ambitions Todds Towls of Tavistock Town Farm Vets Treyone Wood Craft Triangle Training W H Smith Wessex Heritage West Devon Borough Council Woolworths (contribution from staff) Wrightstyle Devon Hatters Yelverton Nursing & Residential Home |