A CHESTER bingo hall is to hold a Christmas celebration – in June.

Last year saw the cancellation of many Christmas traditions, with Chester placed at the time in a Covid tier preventing many families from gathering together to celebrate the holiday season.

As part of a weekend of National Bingo Day celebrations, Mecca Chester is hosting 'Junemas' on Friday, June 25.

The event is billed as a unique Christmas event to reclaim last year’s celebration and to restore the thrill of moments spent together.

This will be followed by a summer of missed moment events in Mecca clubs.

With a rare chance to be rocking around the Christmas tree in June, customers will have the opportunity to get in a merry spirit and enjoy Mecca’s very own Christmas traditions with full Christmas decorations, mince pies, Christmas cocktails and a best Christmas jumper competition.

There will also be Christmas crackers with plenty of secret Santa surprises and Christmas tunes.

Finally, there will be an all-important bingo game in support of children’s charity, Variety.

The celebrations were officially announced when Santa arrived in his sleigh at Mecca Bingo in Dagenham, Essex this week – and due to the heat, donned his best Hawaiian shirt and sunnies. Santa was joined by local supporters and good causes.

Junemas comes before the UK’s first ever National Bingo Day takes place on Sunday, June 27. This new day celebrates all things bingo across hundreds of bingo clubs in the UK, not just Mecca.

On this special day, Christmas really could come early with not one, but two guaranteed £50k National Game jackpots up for grab. Not only that, everyone in the winning club will also win up to £100 each.

Leonard Lubega, general manager at Mecca Bingo Chester, said: “We are thrilled to host this special and exciting weekend of events, giving a chance to our customers to catch up on missed moments – Merry Christmas everyone!

"With the entire nation being in lockdown last Christmas, many did not get the chance to celebrate like they normally would, so we are determined to turn that into a nicer memory.”

Mecca continues to employ extensive safety measures.

The uniquely large and spacious bingo halls and lounges provide a reassuring way to socialise safely, with mask-wearing throughout the venues and hand sanitiser readily available.