Colch­ester has offi­cial­ly earned its Pur­ple Flag — recog­nis­ing our city as one of the UK’s best and safest nights out! From cul­ture to cui­sine, cre­ativ­i­ty to com­mu­ni­ty, there’s nev­er been a bet­ter time to explore Colch­ester after dark.

The lights are going up. The Christ­mas jumpers are com­ing out. Group chats are already argu­ing about where the work do should be.Which means one thing: fes­tive nightlife sea­son in Colch­ester is offi­cial­ly here!

This Christ­mas, there is only one place to go for the quin­tes­sen­tial shop­ping experience…visit Colch­ester and make an event of it.

Colchester’s turn­ing on the sparkle! From the big city-cen­tre switch-on to cosy grot­tos, light trails, mar­kets and block­buster fam­i­ly shows, here’s your no-stress guide to plan­ning a mag­i­cal fes­tive sea­son in Britain’s First City.