Winterville

East London's one-stop destination for the festive season will return in 2015 with a snow-storm of exciting attractions to cater for all ages and desires. Combining Christmas classics with a contemporary twist, Winterville is an unmissable destination for both Londoners and visitors to the capital.

Following the success of its inaugural year, the town of Winterville will grip the city once more when it arrives at Victoria Park this festive season with an extended programme set to excite and delight. With Christmas classics including an ice rink, Winterville’s very own Circus featuring stars from The Moscow State Circus, the reimagined Santa's Grotto designed by Bearded Kitten, Snow White Pantomime and a dedicated Kids’ Quarter, there will be unmissable entertainment for all ages! If that wasn’t enough, the hugely popular Dutch Spiegeltent returns housing comedy, cabaret, theatre, DJ sets, live music and more while Winterville's very own local 'Bar Humbug' pub on the famous town square and East London's best street food traders return alongside artisan festive markets. Other exciting attractions include Backyard Cinema programming a five-week series of film screenings as part of “The Winter Night Garden”.

Organisers have pulled out all the stops this year and visitors can expect an even bigger and better offering as ten acres of London's Victoria Park gets transformed into a mythical winter town centred around the iconic Winterville clock tower, adorned with festive lights set to dazzle all those who choose to enter it.

Backyard Cinema - “The Winter Night Garden”
For the first time East London film providers Backyard Cinema join Winterville's offering and will be creating an enchanted forest named 'The Winter Night Garden', which can only be accessed via a secret tunnel of trees. Showcasing films for all tastes, the series includes 'Proper' Christmas films such as It's a Wonderful Life, Love Actually and The Muppet Christmas Carol alongside family films from Frozen and Happy Feet, to Cult Christmas classics such as Home Alone, Die Hard and Elf and even non-festive related screenings for the scrooges amongst us with a Jurassic Park & Jurassic World double bill. This will be the perfect spot to lounge on the sofas and beanbags and enjoy tasty high quality food & drink in their woodland bar.

Circus
The Circus rolls into Winterville for the very first time set to delight and amaze, including gravity defying ariel acts, wire walkers, balancing wonders, acrobats, clowns & even a dare devil crossbow act who fires multiple crossbows into an apple on his own head. The cream of international circus will entertain Winterville's audiences with acts from the world famous The Moscow State Circus combined with African Whirlwind acrobats to create a wondrous Christmas Circus.

Spiegeltent
The beautiful wood-panelled mirror Spiegeltent returns to host a series of exciting events from home-grown entertainment for the entire family to parties hosted by East London's leading promoters. Snow White takes to the stage with an hour long pantomime with slapstick, music and comedy – the perfect Christmas treat for all the family. For the grown-ups Cirque du Cabaret return with a heady mix of circus, saucy burlesque, live music and cabaret, while Shit-faced Shakespeare debut their sell-out show at Winterville, delivering a Shakespeare play with a twist as one cast member performs blind drunk for guaranteed hilarity. The fun continues as Bugged Out let their hair down and get festive with Bugged Out's Little Bugger, spinning classic Bugged Out tunes mixed with pop and R&B every Friday night plus a spot of alternative entertainment with Indeedy Musical Bingo, shows from La La Piano Bar and Old Dirty Brasstards and the return of James Yorkston's Xmas Show! Lauded by The Guardian, power ballad party starters Ultimate Power are set for a Spiegeltent takeover and invite revellers to break out the air guitars, while Guilty Pleasures also returns to unleash a myriad of bangers across pop, dance, disco and R&B.

Ice Rink
The Ice Rink returns offering daily fun where visitors can slip, slide and glide their way across 600 sqm of ice in the picturesque surroundings of Winterville.

Kids' Quarter
A reimagined Santa's Grotto will be designed by seriously silly award winning interactive events company Bearded Kitten. Housed within a large heated structure the area will house a cafe, soft play areas and dedicated kid market filled with activities and adventure for the whole family.

Plonk Crazy Golf
After 6 months of Plonk Crazy Golf popping up in bars Hackney, and with over 10,000 happy golfers, Plonk Crazy Golfs will bring their brand new 9 hole putting project at Winterville 2015. Skills will be put to the test whether driving through snow drifts, past evil ice beasts, and into foggy valleys to get those little crazy golf ball balls into their holes. Not a golfer? Plonk is full of secret tunnels, risky routes and a bit of lateral thinking, so have no fear, Plonk can be played by revellers of all ages and abilities.

Fairground
Winterville's smorgasbord of festive delights wouldn't be complete without dozens of fairground rides peppered across the festive own. Expect classic thrills on the Dodgems, Waltzer and Haunted House; while thrill seekers can jump on Winterville's own Crazy Mouse Coaster, Starflyer or Blizzard with themed rides including the Ice Jet and Santa’s Train designed to appeal to the whole family. Amongst many new additions for 2015 is a Giant Wheel. Coming all the way from the USA, visitors will be able to take in the beautiful panoramic views of London’s Victoria Park from 115 feet in the air.

Markets
Visitors will also be able to browse the hand crafted and artists products in the Christmas Markets which includes the welcome return of the Bizzare Bazaar, a Vaudeville-Victorian marketplace and veritable emporium of diverse artists showing and selling their vintage wares and curious character before resting their feet between thrills and warm up in seasonal tradition in the Victorian tavern while sipping on hot chocolate and casks for steaming mulled wine.

Food & Drink
As with any traditional Christmas, food and drink will feature heavily with some of London's finest traders spoiling visitors for choice. There will also be an abundance of bars selling real ales, mulled wine, cider, hot chocolate and a whole host of festival refreshments as well as the return of Winterville's very own town pub 'Bar Humbug'.

Visit www.winterville.co.uk/ for more information.