St Johnstone boss Derek McInnes to switch on Perth's christmas lights

Nov 10 2009 by Johnathon Menzies, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

ST JOHNSTONE manager Derek McInnes will switch-on Perth’s Christmas lights and officially start the count-down to the Fair City’s 800th anniversary celebrations.

Local bands Vortex and On the Wagon will top the bill as the festivities get underway outside the Concert Hall on November 22 – with Craigclowan School Choir providing a more traditionally-festive soundtrack.

Alongside the events at the city centre venue – which begin at 1.45pm and include a Christmas craft fair – the nearby streets will provide the platform for stilt walkers, face painters and other musicians to strut their stuff.

Santa will be in his St John’s Centre Grotto slightly earlier in the day, from 1.15pm, giving out presents and discussing wish lists with children until 4.20pm.

A reindeer-led procession will take him from St John’s Street to the Concert Hall at 4.40pm, just in time to see Saints boss Derek McInnes – alongside Perth and Kinross Provost John Hulbert, Councillor Callum Gillies, and characters from Perth Theatre’s musical Pinocchio – switch the lights on.

As the festive period is part of the build up to Perth’s 800th anniversary, a clock will be projected onto the Concert Hall and tick away the days, hours, minutes and seconds to the start of the planned celebrations.

Provost Hulbert said: “We are all looking forward to the festive period and the excitement and celebration of this time will be carried into 2010 as the Perth 800 programme gets underway.”

Members of Perth’s Common Good Fund are also supporting the annual Perth Christmas Shoppers’ Creche, starting on November 26 in St Matthew’s Church.

Councillor Gillies, Common Good Fund committee convener, said: “I would like to thank everyone involved in putting up the Christmas lights and in organising the Christmas shoppers’ creche, which will be a boon to parents and families during the busy festive period.”

From Sunday, November 22, a brochure listing the range of events taking place during Perth 800 will be available across Perth and Kinross.

Copies can be ordered by calling: 01738 477 958, emailing info@perth800.com, or signing-up on: www.perth800.com

For more details on the creche, which will run between 10am and 5pm from Thursday to Sunday, call the local authority’s childcare information service on: 0845 601 4477.