Poor reviews for Christmas Market should be a worry - Kevin Buckle

Edinburgh's Christmas Market in East Princes Street Gardens.

While I’m sure the market’s owners are glad about the former, I’m sure they won’t be happy about the general lack of interest that there has been in what was on offer this year.

Don’t get me wrong, on the busiest days there were queues to get in and the rides always seemed busy when I passed by. But whereas in past years there would be a lot of chatter in the shop about the market, often based around the high pricing, this year it was rare to hear anybody talk about the market.

The exit this year was opposite the Waverley Market’s Waverley Bridge entrance, which did the centre no harm at all. People looking to warm up and buy some more reasonably priced food only had to cross the road and certainly Tinderbox, the centre’s coffee shop at the entrance, was always busy.

In previous years it had been possible to both enter and leave by the Waverley Bridge gate which did cause a fair amount of confusion, whereas this year the entrance was signposted further along at Market Street.

I’m not a huge fan of reviews, as the sort of people who bother to review an item or place are normally looking to complain and I’m never too bothered with any negative feedback Avalanche gets.

However, surely the Christmas Market owners should be concerned when, of 503 reviews on Tripadvisor over the last five years, 345 people rated the market either terrible or poor and half of all the reviews rate the market as terrible.

There is certainly a demand for a quality market at any time of the year and of course there has been talk of the Waverley Market roof being used as a market again, rather than the huge pub it was for a while, for some time now. But what little I’ve heard does not seem to bode well for anything being in place before the summer.

It is a fine line, as on one hand a good market would draw people to the roof, while on the other put too much on the roof and it starts to hide the fact there is a shopping centre below.

I do have an interest in this as the curator of the exhibition space on the secret stairs, which lead from the centre’s top floor to the roof, which currently only have an entrance from within the centre but should eventually be opened up so people can enter via the roof.

The Taylor Swift x Butcher Billy exhibition on the stairs was due to end in January but has been such a huge success that it has been extended to Easter. I had expected the roof to be open by then but now that is looking optimistic. Thankfully it hasn’t detracted from the overall experience only enhancing the secret nature of the stairs.

We’ve had fans from the States and all over Europe visiting the exhibition and then popping in the shop to say how much they have enjoyed it.

Maybe we could try to organise a Taylor Christmas Market this year!