Visitors to Newquay’s town centre this summer need not worry about their sanity if they happen to pass a 10-foot-tall pirate or come across a clown casually frequenting Bank Street – they are there for enjoyment and all part of Newquay Business Improvement District’s brand-new-for-2021 town entertainment schedule.

The line-up of quirky immersive entertainment has been organised and funded by the BID which hopes to put a smile on visitors’ faces, help boost local trade and restore confidence and enthusiasm in the high street. Every Saturday from 17^th July 2021 until 4^th September, between 10am -3pm, Newquay town centre will come alive with impressive stilt walkers, startling statues, awe-inspiring circus acts or even a interactive Demelza Dragon! There will be up to three different acts per day running in sets adding an element of pleasant surprise, all of which have been sourced from Cornish based entertainment organisations including Hotch Potch Performance and Higher Beings Circus.

Aiming to increase visitor dwell time, the street performers will provide some fun interaction for visitors across key footfall areas, including Bank Street and East Street. Despite recent challenges, the BID team hopes to help Newquay’s visitors and residents feel positive and have a really fun and memorable experience whilst here.

Carla – Marie Jones, Newquay Business Improvement District (BID) Manager said, “Summer is fully upon us and restrictions are set to (hopefully) lift in the not-so-distant future, bringing an air of real positivity in Newquay. We’ve all had an incredibly serious time of it lately so we want to inject a bit of fun into the day to day. We are keen for our town centre to be a place where people want to come and spend time. We have a centre full of vivacious businesses that is parallel to arguably the UK’s most beautiful coastline and scenery – who wouldn’t want to spend time there?!”

Susan Deakin, Newquay BID Director and Manager of Visit Newquay TIC said, “We look forward to seeing lots of surprised faces this summer when they see the fun entertainers roaming the streets. Many people have not been socialising or going out much at all recently for obvious reasons, so we want to help them enjoy the town centre and simply being out and about again. In addition, many events have been cancelled over the past two years, so we are creating a covid safe and small-scale festival feel throughout the already vibrant town centre areas. We are also naturally keen to help support the business community through its Covid recovery period. If you see these characters in the town this summer, don’t forget to say hi or give them a wave!”

Ross Wheeler from Hotch Potch, said, “We are thrilled and very excited to be bringing Newquay town a truly immersive, diverse and interactive spectacle of summer entertainment. We love Newquay so were really pleased when the BID team reached out to us.  We guarantee our Saturday summer sessions will be funny, super family-friendly and immensely entertaining. After the past year, it’s fantastic to able to reconnect people through street performance, fun and creativity.”

In normal times, Newquay is renowned for its colourful and exciting event schedule, including the popular Zombie Crawl, the renowned Christmas light switch on and Cornwall Pride amongst many others. Unfortunately, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, such events have been unable to take place for the past two years, so such street entertainment feels like a small step towards some semblance of normality.

Other projects that the BID has activated in 2021 to help ensure Newquay maintains its year-round appeal as a key destination to live, work and visit include the erecting of colourful banners and bunting and its collaborative work with local authorities and safety groups to collate a ‘business contact listings’ guide. In addition, the team has conducted a vigorous spring clean on behalf of its member businesses and is also working closely with local community interest company, Land & Sea Cornwall to activate a number of environmental initiatives that will directly benefit the town and wider community.

For further information on Newquay BID’s future work and projects, please email info@newquaybid.co.uk or visit the website at: https://www.newquaybid.co.uk/.