For the past seven weeks, free family fun has been bringing people into Alloa to entertain kids over the summer holiday.

Alloa Town Centre Business Improvement District (ATCBID) has been delivering its Summer Family Fun Programme on the High Street entertaining kids and parents with a range of magic shows, a mini animal zoo, Punch and Judy and most recently a Frozen Tribute Party during the long school break.

The shows helped to bring more customers to town and on Thursday (13 August), Queen Elsa, Princess Anne and Olaf saw a great turnout as they entertained the crowd with games, as well as song and dance routines on a sunny afternoon.

Andrew Mitchell, ATCBID manager, told the Advertiser: “We had some fantastic children’s entertainers this year with different shows taking place each week. All the shows were well attended and helped to increase footfall into the town centre and generate some additional spend in the local shops.

“I’d like to thank everybody who came in to watch the shows and to invite any new visitors to the town centre to come back – we have some great independent and national retailers on our doorstep.” Also each week, face painting and balloon modelling was on offer while Marcelle House artists were sketching 10-minute street portraits.

Vicky Ryan, who works at The Salvation Army charity shop, said: “[The programme was] very good as it brought new people into the town. The events were good for the kids as they were all free and I noticed that there were a number of new faces in the store.” ATCBID is organising a Taste of Alloa event and a Continental Market is taking place in September and activities for Christmas are also being planned.

The organisation will speak with local businesses over the coming weeks to find out whether they’d like to see the programme again next year.