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Welcome to this month’s fantastic bumper issue, which we hope will provide a great reason to kick back and enjoy our selection of entertaining features.

Inside you will find Downtown’s superb Christmas 2024 brochure, as well as our inspirational Christmas Gift Guide to help you start planning your festivities.

This month sees our exciting sell-out Lincolnshire Life Taste of Excellence Awards evening, which takes place on Thursday 7th November at The Drill in Lincoln, where the nominees in each of our 14 categories will discover the worthy winners and runners-up.

Nominations have been flooding in and over the past weeks, our judges have been out and about to review the businesses and independents hoping to be crowned champions of Lincolnshire food, drink and hospitality. For those who are unable to join us on the night, we’ll be covering the event and finding out about the winners in next month’s issue, so make sure you order your copy!

Kate Chapman caught up with talented violinist Freya Goldmark (page 32), who is hosting a special festive concert in Stamford next month on 21st December. It’s been a busy year for Freya, who says a highlight this summer was performing alongside one of her favourite pop bands, Pulp, which she describes as a “pinch me moment”.

“I went to Amsterdam and Barcelona as part of a small string section, and we played alongside Pulp to crowds of 70,000 people, which was an experience I will never forget.”

Meanwhile, Andrew Vaux chatted to Paul Marshall, chairman of the Broadcast Engineering Museum, near Lincoln, which is Europe’s leading collection of technology for radio and TV. The museum is housed in a historic former sergeants’ mess with its fascinating exhibits dating from the dawn of broadcasting to the present day.

Visitors to the museum open days are captivated by what they find: “We joke that we have a box by the door for dropped jaws because people just don’t realise how big it is, how much stuff there is, and how diverse it is,” says Paul.

Whatever your Christmas plans this year, why not treat yourself to a few special family days out over the festive holidays – see you next month!