Traffic in Bury St Edmunds will be at its busiest all year today and tomorrow as tens of thousands of visitors arrive to enjoy the town’s huge Christmas fayre.
Drivers can expect delays in and out of the town and rail services are also expected to be packed for what are anticipated to be the most popular days of the four-day festival, which is expected to see around 120,000 visitors.
More than 300 stalls, cookery demonstrations, fairground rides, Santa’s grotto and live music will entertain crowds.
Such is the popularity of the fayre, extra trains will be running between Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich on Sunday.
Eight additional services will be running both before and after the fayre in both directions and extra staff will be on hand at Bury St Edmunds Station to assist passengers.
James Reeve, Greater Anglia’s area customer service manager, said: “Although we are running additional trains and extra carriages, we still anticipate these trains to be full. Extra colleagues will also be on hand to help passengers at Bury St Edmunds.
“We expect trains to be very busy while the market is on and would encourage people to check before they travel.”
Visitors planning to travel by road this weekend are advised that Angel Hill and Hatter Street are now closed to traffic. Lower Baxter Street is now also closed and Angel Lane has become two-way carriageway.
As well as the normal council-run car parks, additional facilities over the event include a cash-only park and ride service, at a price of £10 per car, running from Saxham Business Park, just off the A14.
This is available on Saturday from 8.30am to 8.30pm and Sunday from 9am to 5.30pm.
Venues for the wide range of entertainment include The Haart Community Stage, which is new for this year and will give visitors a chance to sit down, chill out and listen to a variety of acoustic acts as well school performances, including St Benedict’s School performing tasters of their school production of Beauty and the Beast.
A wintery princess will also be paying Bury a visit, making herself available to have a chat or sign autographs during Saturday, from 3pm and 7pm and on Sunday from 11am to 3pm.
A brilliant puppet show will be performed every two hours from 10.30am on Saturday and Sunday at The Arc Shopping Centre.
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