Three days of non-stop rain did little to dampen the enthusiasm of Christmas shoppers who flocked to Ipswich town centre at the weekend.

Retailers believe they are set for a strong Christmas series – and the town’s festive market helped attract more shoppers.

Ipswich Central chief executive Paul Clement said: “We are getting reports of very strong sales from retailers over the weekend. The market clearly helped and the borough council is to be congratulated for organising it.

“The weather wasn’t great but it seemed that people were determined to go out and get their Christmas shopping anyway – and there’s still what is expected to be the busiest weekend to come.”

While the wet weather may have put some people off from lingering around the stalls and “window shopping”, officials at the borough did not believe it put them off from opening their wallets.

A spokesman for the authority said: “There were a lot of people in the town over the weekend and the feedback we had from the stallholders at the Christmas Market was that they were getting a lot of sales, even if shoppers were not milling around as much as they might normally be expected to do.

“Let’s hope that next year the weather is better for the Christmas Market.”

And Ian Bacon from new Ipswich firm Pukka Chef was impressed by his first stall at the market. He said: “The whole Markets team toiled under a huge extra workload due to the weather, but I found them to be extremely helpful and supportive, and all of them went that extra mile to make the Christmas Market something special.”

Council leader David Ellesmere also enjoyed the event. He said: “You cannot plan for the weather, but it was fantastic to see so many people in the centre of the town doing their Christmas shopping and generally having a good time preparing for the festive season.”