SLIDESHOW: Spooky fun for Halloween in Gainsborough

Gainsborough families celebrated Halloween in style with the town's most spectacular 'fright night' event ever.
By The Newsroom
Published 1st Nov 2016, 15:44 BST
Updated 16th Nov 2016, 15:53 BST
(l-r) Leanne Clover, Isla Sutton, Saskia Joyce and Jade Marshall at the Gainsborough Family Fun Day. Picture: Andrew Roe(l-r) Leanne Clover, Isla Sutton, Saskia Joyce and Jade Marshall at the Gainsborough Family Fun Day. Picture: Andrew Roe
(l-r) Leanne Clover, Isla Sutton, Saskia Joyce and Jade Marshall at the Gainsborough Family Fun Day. Picture: Andrew Roe

Marshall’s Yard shopping complex bosses and the Independents in Gainsborough group joined forces to organise a full day of events right across the town.

The Independents group took charge of the town centre celebrations with the support of the town council and West Lindsey District Council.

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In the town centre there was an “electric chair”, market stalls, fairground rides and even a creepy graveyard.

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(l-r) Leanne Clover, Isla Sutton, Saskia Joyce and Jade Marshall at the Gainsborough Family Fun Day. Picture: Andrew Roe(l-r) Leanne Clover, Isla Sutton, Saskia Joyce and Jade Marshall at the Gainsborough Family Fun Day. Picture: Andrew Roe
(l-r) Leanne Clover, Isla Sutton, Saskia Joyce and Jade Marshall at the Gainsborough Family Fun Day. Picture: Andrew Roe

While at Marshall’s Yard, there was a treat-filled Halloween market, creepy crawlies and birds of prey.

Shoppers could get their photographs taken in the Marshall’s Yard spooky photo booth, using Halloween props, with all the profts going towards the centre’s chosen charity, the Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire Air Ambulance.

Assistant centre manager at Marshall’s Yard, Charlotte Toplass, said: “The Halloween event gets better and better each year and this year was one big celebration in Gainsborough.

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“We’re now busy planning the Gainsborough Christmas Light Switch-on which will take place on November 18.”

(l-r) Leanne Clover, Isla Sutton, Saskia Joyce and Jade Marshall at the Gainsborough Family Fun Day. Picture: Andrew Roe(l-r) Leanne Clover, Isla Sutton, Saskia Joyce and Jade Marshall at the Gainsborough Family Fun Day. Picture: Andrew Roe
(l-r) Leanne Clover, Isla Sutton, Saskia Joyce and Jade Marshall at the Gainsborough Family Fun Day. Picture: Andrew Roe

Chairman of the Independents in Gainsborough Group, Dawn Barron, owner of Barron Bou, said: “The joint event meant that there was more to do for the whole family. The whole day was a great success and finishing with a fireworks display on the Riverside, which had more than 3,000 people attending.”

This year’s event saw more people than ever dressing up in a fantastic assortment of spooky fancy dress costumes and designing some weird and wonderful pumpkin artwork which were judged by shop staff and the town’s mayor, Councillor Ken Woolley.

With more than 30 entries and some exceptional costumes, it was not an easy choice for the judges to pick a winner, but first place went to nine-year-old Erin Stevenson-Leigh.

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The Michiels family won the best family in fancy dress prize of a voucher for £50 to spend on a meal kindly donated by the Yard’s Italian restaurant, Prezzo. The first prize in the pumpkin design competition, which consisted of a Halloween goodie hamper from the centre’s law firm Sills and Betteridge went to Keegan Gadd, aged eight.

Coun Ken Woolley, Alison Hall, the Yard’s centre manager and Richard Kane, chairman of Gainsborough Trinity FC, all took part in a gruesome bush tucker trial tackling some tasty treats including mealworms, locusts and crickets and raising more than £350 for the Trinity Foundation and the air Ambulance.

And to there was a fitting finale when crowds headed to the Riverside for a firework show at 6.30pm.

The town centre event is partially funded and supported through the Councillor Initiative Fund and Wst Lindsey District Council’s Gainsborough Town Centre Fund.