Last updated at 13:29, Friday, 16 November 2012

HUNDREDS of people are expected to turn out for Cockermouth’s Christmas lights switch-on this Sunday.

Main Street will be closed off from Sullart Street to Station Street between 11am and 7pm.

An afternoon of entertainment is planned to include a children’s fun fair and Santa’s grotto.

Billy Bowman kicks things off at 2pm with festive music before 13-year-old singer Leah Goodger performs between 2.15pm and 2.40pm.

Children from All Saints School will sing and drum between 2.50pm and 3.10pm, and Cockermouth Mechanics Band and choir will perform between 3.20pm and 4pm.

Mandy’s Dancing Divas will be on stage between 4.10pm and 4.45pm.

The switch-on at 5pm will be carried out by mayor Isabel Burns, her grandson Connor Irving and local schoolchildren Jack Simpson, Gemma Bell, Sam Dawson, Heather Palmer, Aaron Hodgson, Sophie Taylor, Aaron Hoad-Williams and Laura Brown.

The lights are on Main Street, Station Street, Market Place, Gallowbarrow, Kirkgate, Crown Street and Castlegate. They will be on every day from 3pm to 12.30am until January 7.

Christmas trees and other illuminated features will be placed around the town.

Sunday’s entertainment will close with local band AWOL performing until 6pm.

Forty stalls will line Main Street, including those from Cockermouth School, Eaglesfield Paddle Academy, Sally Wilde and her cup cakes, Cockermouth Rotary, Cockermouth Round Table, First Responders, Cockermouth Mountain Rescue, Cockrock, Age UK and Cockermouth Lions and Lionesses.

Free parking will be at Riverside, Bitter Beck, Kirkgate, Sainsbury’s Sullart Street and Wakefield Road car parks.

It is hoped that businesses will have their shop windows decorated with a Christmas scene and judging will take place on December 5. A family window spotting competition will run from Sunday until December 5.

First published at 11:55, Friday, 16 November 2012
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk