There's no Christmas lights switch-on event in Cork City this year. Here's why
A public ‘Christmas lights switch-on’ event has not been held since 2019. Picture: Dan Linehan
Crowd safety concerns have again ruled out the holding of a large-scale Christmas lights switch-on ceremony in Cork City this year.
But people will be able to programme their own spectacular festive light show thanks to a new interactive Christmas lights display which has been installed on a city plaza.
The news emerged at Monday’s city council meeting when council chief executive, Ann Doherty, presented a report on the council’s Corkmas initiative — its ‘Christmas in the city’ plans for the coming weeks.
“A public ‘Christmas lights switch-on’ event has not been held since 2019 and for reasons of public safety and challenges related to crowd management as outlined to council in response to previous motions, a large-scale public switch-on event is not planned for this year,” she said.
“At time of preparing this report it is notable that Galway City, Limerick City, and Dublin City have not announced plans to have a public ‘switch-on’ event.”
Numbers attending the event on St Patrick’s Street grew in the decade leading up to the December 2019 event, which Ms Doherty described as “a tipping point” in terms of the council’s ability to run the event safely and in a manner that was not at risk of a major incident occurring.
She said during that event, crowd crushing was observed on access streets, event managers expressed concerns about difficulty in facilitating emergency access should it have been necessary, and there were concerns that the location and event design “simply did not lend itself to this event due to the audience growth”.
Following a review involving gardaí, events, and security services, City Hall was “strongly advised” that such an event should not go ahead again in that format, her report said. The responsibility to public safety is “of paramount importance” and “the risks cannot be underestimated”, Ms Doherty said.
She said officials reviewed options for this year but she said St Patrick’s St just cannot accommodate the crowd numbers safely, that any “alternative and dispersed approach” would have serious capacity concerns, and any future event would need to be in “a controlled environment and likely to be ticketed with limited capacity”.
Ms Doherty said the city has instead installed a new pre-programmed, interactive, immersive lighting display called Solas on Emmet Place, which will be turned on this Friday alongside the traditional Christmas lights across the city centre.
The Solas display, which will be lit until 11pm each evening, will act as the central anchor event for the festive season and people will be able to book interactive slots to actually direct the light show, Ms Doherty said.
The 30m Ferris wheel is also returning to Grand Parade but Bishop Lucey Park is out of action because of the park revamp.
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