KIERAN PUTS ON AN EASTER PARADE

"Vote for me, I've got a very expensive lifestyle to maintain!"

No sooner had the poster boy for markets hung up his best ‘day-glo’ after supervising the careful storage of the ‘Christmas  Chalets’ than the call came through from Kieran Quinn, the Tameside council leader and beleaguered councillor for Droylsden who had hit on another populist event to show the Droylsden voters how sorry he was for raising their council tax.

“It’s Easter time!” said SpongeBob and seeing as I'm not too popular here in Droylsden, I thought we’d better get the huts out again and try to get the punters out to our Easter Market!”

Easter, of course, is first and foremost a Christian festival and a service organised by Droylsden Churches Together will be at the heart of the four-day market.

“Now, I know that here in Droylsden we've not got what one could call a pious community, so it’s not going to become Tameside’s version of the Oberammergau Passion Play, the religious bit starts at 12.30pm on the Saturday and will be over after lunch so later that afternoon we can get into the serious fun of holding an Easter bonnet competition.”

In his blog, SpongeBob told us that following the success of last year’s inaugural Droylsden

"Got any eggs? No, not chukkie eggs, bloody Easter eggs?"

Easter Market there was never any doubt they would want to hold a second one. "Too many people were demanding it!” and explained that a combination of good weather and great attractions pooled to attract thousands of people to Ville-womble Square and the Droylsden Centre, and told us at the time, that “it often seemed as though half the town was there.”

So what have the people of Droylsden got to look forward to this Easter?

Well, This year’s market – again organised with the help of Droylsden town team – opens on Wednesday, April 1, and continues until Saturday, April 4. Like last time there will be lots of food, fun, entertainment and activities.

"We’ll have stalls in the town centre, a licensed bar, and an ice rink. Youngsters can look forward to funfair rides and a big wheel, and there will be live entertainment from the stage".

A bit like the disastrous Ashton Christmas Market then?

"People we're queuing-up to tell me how good it was!" 

Cllr Kieran Quinn, who is also chair of the town team, said: “I'm delighted to say the Droylsden Easter Market proved to be extremely popular. I've lost count of the number of people who came up to me and said how much they enjoyed it!”

But that’s not surprising because ‘counting and general arithmetic’ has never been one of his strong points!

As he says: “Here in Droylsden, we do it every year – well, almost every year. Admittedly we’ve missed a few up to last year, but who’s counting?”

Chairman of Droylsden’s Market Traders Association, Ivor Smallstall, also put his oar in: “Yes,even though it’s true to say that Droylsden market’s turnover has not yet returned to the levels of the 1980’s we’re certainly very optimistic about the future!”

Kieran will tell you that Droylsden is very easy to get to. Just catch the tram in Ashton and in a couple of stops you’ll be at the heart of the action!” (in Manchester)

In Droylsden we have real shops for real people! 

“That’s true,” said Ivor, “People in Droylsden will be able to get to Manchester and beyond, and obviously, the reverse is also true, but who'd want to?"

So there you have it. There’s plenty of car parking to be had whenever you want to pop into Droylsden for a coffee while you browse the online retailers from your iPhone, and thanks to the mass of charity shops, burger bars, kebab shops, money lenders and betting shops the high street is looking a lot better than when we had all those nasty empty shop and pub fronts.

No, we’ll soon be back where we were 30 years ago at this rate, so there’s no doom and gloom here!

Just keep your fingers crossed for the weather.