Christmas Market: take a look around City Social in Birmingham

Love great food and drink, crafts, gifts and life music?

Then there’s still time to visit Christmas at City Social at Suffolk St Queensway Underpass - near the Mailbox - which has been transformed into a wonderful festive hang-out.

It’s been a popular spot for many city centre visitors for years - but, like other Christmas markets - took a break last year due to the pandemic.

So if you haven’t visited yet - and fancy a change to the German Christmas Market and Cathedral Square Christmas Market - or fancy trying all three - then there’s still time.

Here’s a few top tips from the organisers and stall holders to give you an insight on what to expect before the market finishes on Saturday, December 18.

‘It’s about working with great companies that we’ve got in the city’

Emma Jones, Co-Founder of City Social says: “So an event of this kind of size, we tend to say takes around six months of really strong planning in terms of infrastructure, health and safety, traders - working with the right traders - and restaurants, because we’re a really nice small offer here. So it’s about working with the great companies that we’ve got in the city.”

“What we tend to find is all of the operators in Birmingham, we all offer something completely different. Even though we’re open at the same time. We work really well together, we support each other.

“And that’s what we see Birmingham is about, we all then work together because we’re there to complement rather than, like, clash with each other. And that for me is kind of what Christmas is about. It’s that coming together. Everyone, children, families, every generation - the city can accommodate it all, as well as all of us separately.”

‘It’s crucial for traders like us’

Harvey Skinner, Co-Owner of The Dough Show says: “Friday and Saturday nights - when we’ve got the live bands on and stuff - where the passing trade through to the Mailbox is phenomenal. And, you know, they can come in and have a beer, have a bit of a party, and they fancy a pizza.

“It’s just crucial, you know, we’ve done two years now of having restrictions and - because we cater for weddings as well - so when they were restricted to 30 people and stuff, it just wrote the business off really, I mean, we’ve got weddings booked in the new year for 150 200 guests and stuff. And events like this and wedding fairs and stuff like that and other festive markets and stuff, it’s just absolutely critical to our survival really.”

‘It’s the first event I’ve done, and I’ve had lots of support’

John Page, Owner of Shenaniganz Sauces says: “So basically, what it’s come from, from what I actually do - making the sauces with the street food and stuff like that.

“Basically I’ve come across quite a few people now who really liked my product and stuff like that, who actually want to, like, get me further and actually want to help me in doing better things, and get me into different places, you know, get the get the word out there a bit more and stuff like that. So this is the first event I’ve ever done. So it’s like hopefully leads to something else.”

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