Highcross Shopping Centre kicked off its fifth birthday celebrations in style yesterday with colour and lights in a spectacular festival atmosphere.
The ‘Festival of Colour’ aimed to celebrate Highcross’ successful first five years of opening and saw the city centre bathed in a rainbow of colours.
The £350 million development opened in 2008 as Leicester’s biggest ever redevelopment project. It boasts more than 20 cafes and restaurants, the ever-popular Cinema De Lux and an exciting retail experience of both well-loved high street shops and unique boutique stores.
St. Peter’s Square became a giant canvas for the pavement artists who were busy creating colourful street art, whilst the Jaipur Kawa Brass Band threw themselves and shoppers into the party spirit with traditional Bhangra dancers delighting those in the city centre.
General Manager of Highcross Jo Tallack says, “To celebrate our fifth birthday, we wanted to organise a spectacular Festival of Colour to really mark the occasion and reward our loyal visitors.”
The celebrations finished on a vibrant note when a Holi festival-inspired paint display saw volunteers throw paint and revel in the falling colours, whilst the John Lewis building lit up the Leicester skyline with a dazzling light display.
Yesterday was only the beginning of the celebrations as there will be month-long events taking place in the shopping centre, with activities and fun for all ages and even a star appearance. Vanessa White from the chart-topping girl band The Saturday’s, will be paying Highcross a visit later this month to celebrate a weekend of style, with fashion shows galore from retailers at the centre. Nicola Short, marketing manager for Highcross, added: “Our weekend of style is the perfect way to round-off our 5th birthday celebrations and it’s great to have Vanessa on board to kick-start it.”
As well as enjoying the host of different tasty treats already available at Highcross, family favourite New York-Italian restaurant Frankie and Benny’s joins the centre this winter along with luxury chocolatier Hotel Chocolat, showing that there’s still plenty more treats in store for Leicester shoppers.
Delighted upon not only the success of the birthday celebrations, but the prosperous past five years, Jo says “As we take time to reflect on the past five years we can also look forward to a prosperous future for the centre. In the coming months we will be unveiling a whole host of exciting projects that are sure to prove popular with our valued customers.”
