Hundreds of people are expected at a night market in Paphos, now an annual event on the Christmas calendar.

Taking place on Thursday 6 at the large car park outside Revival Fashion store and the Paphos Post newspaper on the main coastal road in Kissonerga, event organisers Judith Evans Davies, a local businesswoman and well-known local soprano, said visitors love to soak up the Christmas spirit.

“Around five hundred people come every year and it’s a great place to buy something a little different for Christmas presents. It’s a more personal experience and many special and unique gifts will be available,” she told the Cyprus Mail.

The event, also organised by Sonia Stephanou, gets underway at 4pm. All sorts of items, many of them exclusive, will be on offer including local crafts, artworks, homemade hot and cold food, mince pies, hot chocolate with marshmallows, books, plants and Christmas items, she said.

DJ Dave with his ‘jukebox jive’ will provide witty entertainment and play festive hits throughout the event. It runs until 8pm, when there will be a short musical programme including a solo performance by Evans Davies of ‘O Holy Night’, followed by singer-songwriter Henry Okpokam and concluding with a vocal quartet.

Tickets for a Big Raffle will be on sale at €2 each and include prizes such as a round of golf for two at an 18-hole local course, all sorts of beauty treatments and meals out. All of the proceeds from ticket sales will go to the Matthew 25 Feed the Hungry in Paphos project, which is run by the Paphos Christian Fellowship International PCFI. The Matthew 25 project helps to feed 80 families in Paphos every other week by giving them a bag of necessary groceries.

People can also bring donations of non-perishable foodstuffs – such as pasta, rice and tinned goods – to the night market, which will be distributed to the hungry.

The market is now in its sixth year and was started as a way to raise funds for the Matthew 25 project and to bring people together.

“I wanted to help the project and to make something exciting for the community and there’s a real Christmas atmosphere.”

Ahead of Christmas, the PCFI will also host a Christmas party for the children of the families they are helping and are requesting donations of children’s party food, which will be a real and rare treat for the children, such as crisps, jelly, biscuits and cake.

Paphos Christmas night market

Festive market with crafts sale and more. December 6. 4pm- 8.30pm. Car park outside Revival Fashion store and the Paphos Post newspaper on the main Paphos to Coral Bay road. Tel: 26-632564