Exeter Christmas Market

[RaeUK]

Always enjoyed Christmas in Germany.

 

[Mid Devon Clown]

I asked both the city council and the city centre manager how they were arrived at but, thus far, neither has been able to come up with an answer.

It is of course, impossible to say how many people 'attended' an open-air event with no entry restrictions. Pretty sure it wasn't half a million people though. I have not dealt with Mr Harvey directly, but know several people who have and they are always keen to discuss their experiences and opinions of the man.

And to address other posts, at no point was last year's event billed as a 'German' market. (Although I believe events in previous years were).

 

[CREDYGRECIAN]

I went , sunday afternoon before xmas , was bloody good too , lovely smells , cheeky pint , nice stalls , nice vibe....nice afternoon out.

 

[Mid Devon Clown]

Rosy-cheeked Polish maidens?

 

[Egg]

I went , sunday afternoon before xmas , was bloody good too , lovely smells , cheeky pint , nice stalls , nice vibe....nice afternoon out.

That's as maybe. My query is how many people were or weren't there.

 

[CREDYGRECIAN]

That's as maybe. My query is how many people were or weren't there.

it was very busy the day I went , id suggest there was a few hundred if not more there....

 

[Mid Devon Clown]

8 confirmed from this thread alone.

I wonder what the population of Exeter's retail catchment area is? Let's be generous and include Plymouth, Torbay, Barnstaple and Honiton - after all it was Christmas.

Hey for the sake of argument let's be really generous and call the catchment area 'Devon' - it makes the maths easier.

The population of Devon is (for all intents and purposes) 1 million people.

So half of Devon not only visited our fair capital, but converged on one small patch of it over a 30 day period? That is big news!

 

[angelic upstart]

What about repeat visitors?

I would imagine 200,000 footfall would be realistic.

 

[Mid Devon Clown]

it was very busy the day I went , id suggest there was a few hundred if not more there....

Let's say 1000.

1000 people x 30 days. I don't have a calculator but that's about 30,000.

Either you can't count, or John Harvey is talking out of his arse.

 

[Egg]

it was very busy the day I went , id suggest there was a few hundred if not more there....

And that's my point. For the half-a-million figure to stack up, there'd have to be close to 2,000 visitors* inside every minute of every day the market was open.

*Assuming people stay for an average of an hour; if you assume they only stay for half an hour then you can half the number of people who would have to be in there at any one time.