Christmas lights switch on

8th Noveber: Christmas officially starts tomorrow in Bristol. Cabot Circus will switch on its Christmas lights. I was there last years "switch on" event and I can tell you Cabot Circus gets very busy. There will be people hours before the procession starts, standing on the balconies, intending to see the whole performance from the best perspective possible. 

As far as I can see, Cabot Circus Christmas event organisers love Disney, or at least folk tales. Last year, it was a Peter Pan-themed event, this year it's Cinderella's turn. Suzanne Shaw, a 32-year old English actress, singer and television personallity known for winning the talent contest Popstar, will perfom as Cinderella at the Hippodrome show until 5th January, and lead the procession of tomorrow which starts at The Galleries at 5.30pm. It will then go through Broadmead, until it gets to the interiors of Cabot Circus. Music, acrobats, singers and dancers will entertain us until the Christmas lights will be switched on at 6.20pm and we will able to officially start buying Christmas presents.

WEBSITE: http://www.cabotcircus.com/news-events/bristol-city-centre-christmas-lights-switch

A young wave of consumerism in Cabot Circus

I am getting old. 26-year-old PhD student and I am already feeling old. 18-year-old 2013/2014 university freshers took Cabot Circus this evening and I was there, trying not to get stressed by the amount of people in the shops and not to getting crazy with the extremelly loud music. I have to say "Well done, Cabot Circus!" for the effective consumer campaign of today, they must have made a lot of money in 3 hours!

Between 6pm until 9pm, Cabot Circus kept its shops open for the "Student Lock-In" campaign to offer up to 25% off to any student who was wearing the official yellow wristband. Minutes before 6pm, students were queueing to get their own wristband, ready to spend their (or their parents') savings in shops in Cabot Circus. The queue took most of Broadmead, starting in front of Apple Store all the way to Lloyds Bank, at least. Once they started giving the wristbands, a wave of students stroke the shopping centre, where DJs in different stores started their performances, soundtracking the normally silent mall.

As far as I know, they were giving free Jagermaister shots at the entrance of a store, hip hop dancers were welcoming another, and there also african drummers... Some stores like Pandora, Guess and Swarovski, for example, were half empty. I am sure they were not expecting too many students coming over, as they were offering discounts over 100 pounds spent and glasses of champaign. 

I invited my friend to a Mocha at SOHO Coffee (the second one was free), and we checked some of the shops. I have to admit that I am not a shoppaholic person, so I just bought a pair of nice earrings in Accessorize, where I got a 15% off, and my friend got a shirt in Superdry (20% off) and some trousers in G-Star (25% off). 

I believe most of the shops in this campaign will keep the student discounts during the year too, so there was no need to be consumed by consumerism and crazily buy stuff you actually don't need. 

Student Lock-In: http://www.studentlockin.com/index.php?event/city/bristol