Watch: Shrewsbury's official Christmas video is launched

Members of Shrewsbury Business Improvement District (BID) launched their latest Christmas production on YouTube today, showcasing the town in full festive fling.

The video features seven year old boy Finn who is out and about with his family in snowy Shrewsbury for the Christmas lights switch-on.

While in the grounds of St Alkmund's Church Finn glimpses Santa in the distance and in all the excitement is separated from his favourite toy rabbit.

As the family hunt for the toy, viewers are shown many of Shrewsbury's well known streets in the snow, from the historic Bear Steps to Golden Cross Passage.

As expected there is a happy ending when Finn is reunited with his toy by a famous Christmas character.

More than 18,000 people watched last year's video and Kirsten Henly, Shrewsbury BID manager, said it is designed to show the "real essence of Shrewsbury".

She said: "Our Christmas advert reaches out to online audiences to show them that the town's streets are sparkling this Christmas.

"The film shows the real essence of Shrewsbury, or Snowsbury, as it has been aptly renamed for the festive season. Shrewsbury is the perfect place to capture the magic of seasonal shopping on the streets, meeting family and friends for food and drinks, getting together at events and meeting Santa."

Shrewsbury BID partnered with Shropshire based SMN Film for the film, which was produced and directed by Tom Middleton and Miche Parkinson who had a cast and crew of around 20 people over four evenings of filming in the town centre.

The new release is part of Shrewsbury BID's campaign to promote Shrewsbury, its businesses and the town's festive events programme - including 'Snowsbury fun' on December 5 and 6, with free entry into a family sized Snowglobe in the Square between 10am and 4pm.

Snowflakes will also fall across town thanks to light projections by new media light artist Andy McKeown.

As well as projecting snow onto the Market Hall, Mr McKeown has been commissioned by Shrewsbury BID to create one-off lighting shows to be projected onto the Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery and The Old Market Hall today and December 16.

Other events planned include the first Christmas Festival in The Quarry, on December 12 and 13, Carols in The Square on December 16, and the Christmas Farmers Market in The Square on December 19.

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