Following several years of stability, the programme of special events held at Crich Tramway Village is set to undergo a major refresh for 2014, with a number of new ideas to be tried out and other more established events moved around. This move is presumably a response to the falling visitor numbers at this attraction, which are showing no sign of recovery.<\/p>\n
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The main linking theme of next year’s events will be ’50 years of electric trams at Crich’, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the inaugural passenger journeys at the museum in July 1964. Early plans involve a series of themed event days centring around the various eras during\u00a0which the museum has operated, beginning with the 1960s in May. It is not clear what such events will entail as there aren’t many trams at Crich that can represent more recent decades, and so these may well feature more family-orientated activities. Hopefully at least one major enthusiast event will be held though, perhaps featuring some of the cars that ran in the early years of Crich taking centre stage? Although currently out of service, Blackpool & Fleetwood ‘Rack’ 2<\/strong> could probably be commissioned fairly easily and as this tram performed the first ever public run in 1964, a special appearance in service from this car would be a particularly appropriate way to commemorate such an important milestone.<\/p>\n The popular Edwardian weekend will move from July to September next year, whilst the ever-popular Starlight Halloween event will be expanded to run for an entire week. This will be billed as a premier event, but in a welcome move visitors will be given the option of paying a reduced entry fee if they only wish to come for the evening. Finally, and in a surprising move, the Easter 1940s event has been dropped, although this era will still be represented by a 1940s weekend in August. Although these events are generally the museum’s most popular of all, even they have not been immune from the declining attendance numbers, and therefore reducing them before they become too stale could well be a sensible move, especially in view of the large amount of work involved in staging these events.<\/p>\n It must be hoped that these efforts will help Crich to attract more visitors next season, and halt several years of decline. With Sheffield 510<\/strong> and Blackpool 762<\/strong> due to enter public service, and possibly Leeds 107<\/strong> as well, 2014 has the makings of a great year for the museum and hopefully enthusiasts and the general public will be encouraged to visit more than was the case in 2013.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Following several years of stability, the programme of special events held at Crich Tramway Village is set to undergo a major refresh for 2014, with a number of new ideas to be tried out and other more established events moved … Continue reading