Wow, what a magnificent night we had on Thursday 20^th March. We held our fantastic local and loved awards at Bolton St Catherine’s Academy and it truly was a brilliant evening.

We were celebrating the success of our local and loved campaign, where all our members collected reviews over a 12 month period, in a bid to be crowned the most loved in their category. We had 19 first place winners, 12 second place winners and 9 third place winners, not forgetting a further 4 businesses in fourth place and 1 in fifth place and many of our businesses were there on the night.

The Mayor of Bolton, Colin Shaw, opened and closed the event for us and Martyn Shaw, head of the business school at the University of Bolton was the keynote speaker and talked about the importance of local independent businesses.

It began at 6pm with a glittering champagne reception and open networking. All our local independent businesses got together to celebrate the best of Bolton businesses. David Ramsden from the best of Bolton welcomed everyone to the evening.

Then the big reveal happened at 7pm. The atmosphere built as chariots of fire and M People came over the loud speakers and finally there were gasps and even a few tears when the curtains went up and the stage was revealed for the first time. Enormous letters spelling love lit up in the darkness and the glistening white tables and more of Creative Occasions’ balloon displays were revealed too.

The awards were handed out by Cllr Colin Shaw and then afterwards everyone sat down to a lovely curry prepared by the students of Bolton St Catherine’s. Entertainment was provided by local magician Mike Keech. He kept everyone entertained with his card tricks.

This event couldn’t have happened without the help and support of several people.

Thank you to Bolton St Catherine’s Academy for hosting us so wonderfully and their catering and hospitality and media students of Bolton St Catherine’s Academy for cooking our lovely meal.

Thank you to Cake Delight for the lovely cupcakes that were on every table.

Thank you to Creative Occasions for the incredible balloon displays put up throughout the room.

Thank you to Ruaux Photography, who took photographs of everyone on stage and around the room

Thank you to Framearound for framing all the certificates handed out to our winners.

We got lots of compliments for the enormous letters spelling out love on the stage. They were provided courtesy of Hollywood Letters.

Thanks again to Martyn Shaw and everyone at the University of Bolton for their continued support.

Thank you to our media partners, Bolton FM for broadcasting live throughout the event and THE Bolton News for their coverage before and afterwards.

Of course, the biggest thank you of all must go to our best of Bolton members, for collecting all their reviews throughout the year and making it the hugely successful event that it was.