Albert Halls’ Festival Hall was packed with charity stalls full of gifts and prizes for the mayor’s annual fair on Saturday (December 7) as Storm Darragh raged outside.
People tried their luck at the tombola and the Grinch took pictures with local children.
All of the proceeds from the day went to local charities, including the Mayor of Bolton Cllr Andy Morgan’s chosen charities Bolton Hospice, the Darren Deady Foundation and Bolton Wanderers in the Community.
Two choirs entertained the punters – including Bolton Deaf Society’s choir.
Alison, 40, of Swinton, who declined to give her surname, brought her daughter and father to the event.
She said: “We thought it would be good to support the different charities here.”
Cllr Andy Morgan said: “The fair is a historical thing all the mayors do every year.
“It’s about getting a lot of community groups together and raising as much money for smaller charities as possible.
“We hope to make a lot of money to support these really good causes and for our own charities.”
Our Place Our Space, a learning disability charity, gave out tickets to people hoping for prizes in the tombola, with teddy bears amid the items on offer.
Yaroslav Tymchyshyn, Bolton Branch Chair of the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain, fronted a stall with a dazzling array of Ukrainian decorative wares.
It had hand-painted eggs and cups on display.
Yaroslav said: “Everything we’re selling today is going to humanitarian aid.
“We send items to Ukrainian orphanages.
“Our contact regularly travels from Huddersfield to drop off aid in Ukraine.
“The last time he went to an orphanage, he said the children were in the bomb shelter for 15 hours.
“What type of childhood could they have? I can’t get my head around it.”
Near his booth, a table displaying sparkling earrings, homemade eyeglass chains and jewellery. Roselle Gorman, 75, a fundraiser for Marie Curie, made them.
She hoped to raise money for the charity, which cares for people with terminal illnesses.
The charity has a special place in her heart because of her family history of cancer, including that she had the disease twice.
She said: “Marie Curie’s nurses and healthcare assistants will go into a home and stay overnight with someone who has cancer so that the family can get some respite, which is brilliant.
“I like to help them out and give them anything they need.”
The fair has some regular attendees; Susan Clare and Barbara McFadden, Nephrotic Syndrome Trust (NeST) charity volunteers, come every year.
Susan said: “We always come. Nephrotic Syndrome [a serious kidney condition] isn’t very well known to people, so we want to raise awareness of what can happen.
“My granddaughter had it at 18 months old and I had never heard of it.
“She’s in remission at the moment, but it’s a disease that can flare up at any time.”
Some, like Bolton Adult Autism Support volunteer Patricia Higson, thought the mayor’s fair needed more publicity.
She said: “To be honest, I thought it was poorly advertised.
“Still, I didn’t realise so many people would come out. It’s fairly well attended because of the weather, and all the stalls and charities are very good.”
