DEVIZES Outdoor Contemporary Arts have been awarded almost £14,000 worth of funding to bring some festive fun to the town.

The Arts Council cash will pay for bringing beautiful light shows and installations to Devizes, enhancing the town centre - along with a big Christmas market..

Loz Samuels, artistic director of DOCA said: “For us this event is all about bringing the community together. We’ll miss being able to host the lantern parade but it’s obviously not safe to run the traditional event at this time. We have plenty of ideas up our sleeves to make Devizes feel festive but we're really hoping residents will get involved and participate to help make it work really well.

"We are asking people to decorate their windows to make a magical trail which will be included in a map to help visitors find them. We will be putting a call out to all crafters to help us make an installation for the shambles.

"There will be performers in the town and we will help support market traders by extending the event to the entire weekend over the largest spread market to help with social distancing so shoppers can visit safely. We are determined to bring some very safe festive magic to the town and hope everyone will get involved. We couldn’t do this without the help of the arts council and the national lottery players”.

Markets will take place along with performances on November 27 and finishing on Sunday, November 29.

All this is supported by DOCA’s new patron, actress Celia Imrie, who has family connections with Devizes.

Chair of the trustees, Kelvin Nash said, "It’s a real honour to have Celia supporting us. She has a great understanding of what a difference our events make to the town."