Revealed: What will be on offer as a winter wonderland finally returns to Parker’s Piece in Cambridge in 2024

An ice rink, Christmas market, Alpine Lodge bar and heated domes will be among the attractions when a winter wonderland comes to Cambridge in 2024.

The details were revealed following a second successive year without a festive attraction on Parker’s Piece.

Seventa Events will transform the site between mid-November 2024 and January 2025.

At the heart of the new seasonal attraction will be a Christmas market with chalet huts, street food and a Christmas tree maze, all overlooked by the Big Wheel.

The indoor Alpine Lodge bar will offer steins of beer and beer towers, mulled wine, and other festive favourites while an outdoor seating area will feature ski gondola seating booths and a heated Christmas tipi.

For those who want something cosier, heated domes will be available to book for 90 minutes, during which you can enjoy festive drinks and a charcuterie sharing board.

They will sit next to the ice rink, which will be at the centre of the site. Skate aids will be available for those less steady on the ice.

The Apres Terrace, meanwhile, will feature games inside a heated stretch tent, including free-to-play shuffleboard and table football tables, plus the opportunity to hire private a curling lanes with booth seating and drinks service.

Great Grottos will be organising a Santa’s grotto on site, inside a wooden alpine lodge cabin, with visitors receiving a gift and light-up wand, while photographs will be available too.

Seventa Events, which has delivered a major Christmas market in Bournemouth since 2017, was granted approval in autumn last year to host the festive attraction by Cambridge City Council but said it needed more time to plan it.

That followed the ending of the council’s contract with the previous provider of the ‘North Pole’ attraction, which finished in winter 2021-22. The council invited bids from new operators but after weighing them up decided against hosting a seasonal event for Christmas 2022 as it considered the impact of the event on residents, the historic space it occupies and the environment.

Seventa is also teaming up with Cambridge-based CDC Events to provide corporate Christmas parties for 200-2,000 guests.

Simon Day, director of CDC Events, which has delivered large-scale festive events in the area for 13 years, said: “We’re excited to be working with Seventa Events who have built and developed such a successful operation in Bournemouth over the past six years. We can’t wait to be able to share this unique experience with Cambridge businesses. It’s such an exciting event for our city to experience this year.”

Simon Brooks, director of Seventa Events, added: “We’re very excited to be working with the Cambridge Dining Company with their experience within the Cambridge corporate market. We look forward to them adding their breadth of local knowledge, event logistics and experience to our first Cambridge event.”

Visit https://www.christmasincambridge.co.uk/ for more details of what’s planned.