Safety concerns halted Cork City lights switch-on plans

Future events would have to be ticketed following safety review 

Lord Mayor Cllr Deirdre Forde, Oisín Robinson and Lorraine O'Sullivan join together to light Cork City up for Christmas. Picture: Alison Miles/OSM

Concerns about crowd crushing and limited access for emergency services to Cork’s St Patrick’s St have emerged as the main reasons why the plug was pulled on a public Christmas lights switch-on ceremony in the city this year.

Officials are now considering alternative formats for next year but have warned that any future large-scale festive lights switch-on would need to be staged in “a controlled environment” and is likely to be ticketed with limited capacity.

The news emerged at Monday night’s meeting of Cork City Council after councillors questioned officials about why there was no public festive lights switch-on ceremony last month.

In a written report, Adrienne Rodgers, the director of services in the community, culture and placemaking directorate, said the annual event had grown in popularity since 2009 and despite significant work to expand crowd capacity on St Patrick's St with increased screens, security and audience zones, numbers attending “exceeded beyond the event perimeter”.

She said a “tipping point” was reached in 2019, which despite the event being delivered safely and without incident, numerous concerns were raised, ranging from crowd crushing on access streets, difficulties in facilitating emergency access should it have been necessary, and the site location “simply not lending itself” to the event because of the crowd size.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

A review of the event, involving gardaí, events and security services, strongly advised that it should not go ahead again in that format, she said.

“Crowds were focused on a singular interest point for a short period of time with the full crowd ascending and dispersing through a condensed number of access/egress points at the same time,” she said.

“Additionally, businesses on St Patrick’s St must be facilitated to stay open and trading.

“These factors differ from an event like the St Patrick’s Day Parade, where the interest point is dispersed along a route and traders close for a number of hours which facilitates the use of pavements for audience viewpoints.”

There was no public switch-on event in 2020 or 2021 during Covid but when restrictions were lifted, it was decided not to return to a large-scale switch-on event.

Ms Rodgers acknowledged the disappointment but said the “responsibility to public safety is of paramount importance and the risks cannot be underestimated”.

She did point out that the city council has delivered the free GLOW festival, which has attracted more than 20,000 visitors so far.

She said the focus on any alternative event will be on ensuring it is safe, free and accessible and that proposals will be brought to council next year.