Plans are under way to ensure Glossop's Victorian Weekend can return next year bigger and better than ever, as organisers will also be marking the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. 

To ensure the three-day event is a great success, an appeal is being made for residents, businesses and community groups to get involved. 

Help can be in the form of financial support, by sponsoring some of the exciting attractions that will be on display, or by volunteering to help organise Glossop's Victorian and Platinum Jubilee Weekend. 

Edward Siddall, Co-Chair of Glossop Round Table, said: "It will be quite special to do a Victorian and Platinum Jubilee weekend to relaunch the event. It is going to be held the weekend before the platinum celebrations." 

By holding the event over the weekend of 27 to 29 May 2022, they hope it won’t clash with any other events expected to be arranged for the following week. 

As well as Victorian dress and heritage vehicles, they are hoping to feature 1950s dress and vehicles from the period. 

“What we are looking for is people to sponsor and help fund the event and also volunteers from the community as well as people who want to get involved," said Edward. 

The Victorian weekend was due to return last year but Covid led to it being cancelled. 

“We had pledges for funding but then the Covid crisis happened and some people may not have that funding any more to give to us,” he explained. 

Organisers will be working with High Peak Borough Council and a range of local organisations to relaunch the event and help ensure it can continue in future years. 

Several new ideas have been put forward, including the hope they will be able to hold a High Peak Beer Festival over the weekend to showcase the local breweries in and around the High Peak. 

“Hopefully local breweries will come together to support us,” said Edward. 

Plans are also in the pipeline to create a treasure trail with local shops to encourage people to go into the shops and support local businesses as well. 

Anyone who wants to get involved can get in touch through the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/bringbackglossopvictorianweekend/

What happened to the Victorian Weekends?

The annual three-day extravaganza came to the end of the line following the staging of the event in September 2009, after GALA’s appeal for volunteers to help run the weekend failed.

The charity also ran (and still do) Glossop Carnival, but found organising both too much and when the plea fell on deaf ears, it was forced to call it a day.

Glossop Victorian Weekends always brought thousands of people onto the town centre streets. People poured in from neighbouring towns and it was the biggest event of its kind anywhere in the North West.

High Street West was closed to traffic, packed with Victorian sideshows, musicians, entertainers, food outlets and much more. Attractions included processions of vintage vehicles, a Victorian fun fair on the forecourt of the Norfolk Street train station and a Victorian melodrama in the Partington Theatre.

There were pie-eating contests and prizes for people judged to be wearing Victorian Dress. One year the BBC’s Songs of Praise came from a packed Norfolk Square.

Glossop Victorian Weekend was so popular the idea was copied and staged by towns all over the country where they are thriving annual attractions.

READ MORE: Nostalgia - Lots of Victorian fun in the sun

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