Yate the Entertainer. Eating places in the centre include McDonald's, Boswells and Wetherspoons. During the 1980s and into the mid-1990s, the shopping centre hosted Yate’s annual festival. On opening day a celebrity launched the festival by releasing balloons and stayed to sign autographs. Celebrities have included Carole Lee Scott, in character as Grotbags (from Rod Hull and Emu's enemy), Timmy Mallett, Keith Chegwin, Ross Kemp ("EastEnders"<nowiki>'</nowiki> Grant Mitchell), Ken Morley ("Coronation Street"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Reg Holdsworth), David Neilson ("Coronation Street"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Roy Cropper), Beverley Callard ("Coronation Street"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Liz McDonald), Bob Carolgees and Spit the Dog, and the Milky Bar Kid. The festival also brought
Ken Barlow challenging the system, into a bore next door, eventually discovering that he couldn't change the world after all. Little dubbed Ken Coronation Street's elder statesman and lynch-pin, a one-man Greek tragedy, and the greatest survivor in Weatherfield. The character has a reputation amongst critics as boring and a man of morals; Moran dubbed him the archetypal boring man. Chronicling the history of "Coronation Street" in 2007, Virgin Media stated, "Perhaps unfairly dubbed boring, Ken is ultimately an intelligent man, frustrated by the cards life has dealt him – although the hair, clothes and strong morals haven't helped." Popular perception of