Council Unveils New Events Calendar

TAMESIDE’S 50th birthday is included in the council’s newly unveiled calendar of events for 2024-5.

The golden jubilee features along with regular highlights such as the Whit Friday band contests, Armed Forces Day, the November remembrance ceremonies, and the Christmas lantern parade and lights switch-ons.

Other events take place at Portland Basin Museum, Ashton, including their popular “Meet Father Christmas”. Tameside Libraries have their own schedule of fun activities for all ages, and 2024 will see many outdoor holiday events across the borough’s green spaces including the Theatre in the Park programme.

The council is also planning to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day which falls on 6 June.

Members of Tameside Council’s executive cabinet approved the schedule at their 24 April meeting. By doing so they maintained the authority’s commitment to staging an annual programme of celebrations that are colourful, exciting, affordable – in fact generally free – and open to everyone.

To mark 50 years since the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside was created on 1 April 1974, there will be a trail at Portland Basin Museum, Ashton, featuring 50 significant objects from the borough’s history. Tameside Local Studies and Archives Centre, Ashton, will host an exhibition of important documents.

The terrace area of the Tameside One building at Ashton Market, above the old Wilko store, is to be named in honour of the authority’s former executive leader, Cllr Kieran Quinn, who died aged 56 in 2017.

Theatre in the Park, which sees fun, family productions staged during the school summer  holidays, can always be relied upon to attract large audiences, as does the Armed Forces Day celebration which takes place in Victoria Park, Denton, in June.

Hyde will host November’s lantern parade – which opens the borough’s Christmas celebrations – as regeneration work will be under way in Ashton. This is seen as a great opportunity for Hyde to showcase itself and to attract people to into the town centre.

A Tameside Council spokesperson said: “Our civic and cultural events programme significantly adds to the communities across our towns and villages, generating a sense of local pride and shared heritage.

“As well as offering people the opportunity to participate and engage with the community, they support health and wellbeing, and provide a chance for residents to learn new skills and fulfil their potential. The programme is vast and varied, offering something to all parts of Tameside.

“These events are firmly established in the borough’s consciousness and year after year, people have attended in their thousands. We believe they will be even more popular in 2024.”