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Buckie Christmas Kracker faces bleak future unless volunteers step forward, public meeting will be told





The future of a major Moray festive event is set to take centre stage at a forthcoming public meeting.

Buckie Christmas Kracker (BCK) drew around 2000 people to the centre of Buckie on November 16 for a day of festive fun for all the family, the crowds turning out despite the weather being less than kind.

Unless more volunteers come forward, there may be no Buckie Christmas Kracker this year.
Unless more volunteers come forward, there may be no Buckie Christmas Kracker this year.

The biggest event of its kind in Moray, the day was capped with the switch on of the town’s Christmas lights.

However, in the wake of the event it soon became apparent that unless more volunteers step up to the plate, the future of the extravaganza looks bleak and may see it have to fold.

Speaking after last year’s Kracker, Adam Murray, who chairs both the BCK and Christmas lights committees, said that the small number of volunteers were facing “burn out”.

Praising the four volunteers who worked tirelessly to get the event up and running last year, he continued: “These four boys come from a very small committee of only eight.

“Two of the committee have been behind the scenes doing all the paperwork and admin and the other two [were unable to help with the event] due to work commitments.

“Events like this don’t just happen. The four boys [were] completely done and burnt out. They struggled…even more than normal due to [there being] only four of them and the weather against them. With this they feel this might’ve been the last Buckie Christmas Kracker.

“It’s disheartening to have to say that this may very well be our last event. But we cannot sustain the largest Christmas lights event in the area with such a small workforce and committee.

“We managed to pull in some more people to help tidy up [afterwards] which helped, but this only took our total [to] eight boys.

“Earlier [last] year we held a public drop-in meeting for people to get involved and asked for feedback from the community. We received very little feedback from both. The drop-in meeting had only two people attend. If we don’t get feedback we can’t do anything about anyone’s concerns etc either.

“We would like to thank the businesses who have supported us with donations and sponsorship ]last] year towards the lights and Kracker. We hope the local businesses had a good day’s trade within the town centre. We have brought the crowds to you year on year. Thanks to those who do support us in any way.”

Both businesses and individuals who are interested in supporting the BCK to ensure there is an event in 2025 are being invited along to a public meeting on Thursday, January 30 at 7.30pm in the BB hall at One Marchmont. For updates, visit the BCK Facebook page.


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