Strong few months for Spalding's Springfields Events Centre
The relaxing of Covid-19 restrictions has resulted in a strong few months for Springfields Events Centre, according to staff.
With the Spalding venue closed throughout lockdowns, and only their outdoor gardens open to the public, events such as weddings, parties and seminars had been unable to take place.
David Norton, who is chief executive of Springfields Horticultural Society, says business is now slowly but surely getting back on track.
“Now that we’re starting to open up, I think we’re getting a bit of a mixed picture,” he told the Lincolnshire Free Press.
“We’ve still had some events cancelled, like one of our railway shows and an awards dinner. There’s still some nervousness about people getting back together.
“On the other hand, we’ve had successful weddings. People who booked in 2019 and lost their weddings in 2020 and early 2021 have had their second or third attempts.
“We’ve been doing a number of Asian weddings, which have gone successfully because we have 40 or so people to those. We’ve had a couple of fairs, too.”
Mr Norton says that despite being closed for large portions of the pandemic, the Events Centre managed to contribute to the community by filling in as a vaccine centre earlier this year.
In total, around 88,000 jabs were given at Springfields.
Now, staff are preparing to once again kick-start some of the venue’s showcase events.
“We’re already promoting our Christmas parties and our New Year party,” said Mr Norton.
“They were cancelled last year, so we’ve rebooked the same bands and there’s a degree of interest in getting together and celebrating.”
He added that with caution being required over the possibility of changing restrictions, the number of tickets available for these events have been decreased from around 460 to 400.
However, staff are also busy planning for future events - with some couples enquiring about weddings as far away as 2024.
“As a resource in the Spalding area, I think we’re able to offer quite a lot,” Mr Norton said.
“There’s a mix of things for schools, businesses or the community. I hope we’ll fare well going forward and make sure that we can start improving our facilities so we can keep up with what everybody else is doing.
“The pandemic has focused people back to their core business, making sure the facilities they can offer are suitable.”