Cork City Council spent €343,000 on Christmas events

Income from the Ferris wheel and Christmas markets brought the net cost to Cork City Council to just under €269,000.

Roisín McHugh enjoying the festivities at Cork City Council's Corkmas celebrations on Grand Parade. Picture: Darragh Kane

Nearly €350,000 was spent on Cork city centre’s Christmas events last year, with just under €75,000 in income received from the Ferris wheel and markets.

Corkmas took place from November 14 to December 31, with over six weeks of sustained Christmas activity in the city centre.

Cork's Christmas festivities included the Corkmas parade and switch-on of the Christmas lights, markets at Emmet Place, the Ferris Wheel at Grand Parade (above), family events in Bishop Lucey Park, and concerts at the Counting House on South Main St. Picture: Darragh Kane

They included the Corkmas parade and switch-on of the Christmas lights, Corkmas markets at Emmet Place, the Ferris Wheel at Grand Parade, family programming and games in Bishop Lucey Park, and concerts at the Counting House.

Cork City Council’s director of corporate, community and cultural affairs, Rebecca Loughry, provided costs of each element to independent councillor Albert Deasy at Monday’s council meeting.

A total of €230,363 was spent on the Corkmas festival programme and delivery, €98,455 on the Corkmas Parade, and €14,452 on communications, promotion and marketing.

This brings costs to just over €343,000, but income earned from the Ferris wheel and the Christmas markets meant the net cost to Cork City Council for the festival was just under €269,000.

LUXe Street Theatre performing on St Patrick's Street, one of many free, family-friendly festive events as part of Corkmas. Councillors heard the metrics measuring the economic value and impact to the city centre include attendance, footfall, and PR coverage. Picture: Darragh Kane

Ms Loughry said: “The metrics used to evaluate the economic value and impact to the city centre include attendance and footfall to events, reach and value of PR coverage in promotion of the city centre at Christmas, and through direct feedback from business and social media.

The overall footfall at directly programmed Corkmas events above is approximately 185,000. This is calculated through counting footfall at events, calculating density of attendance per square metre and ticket sales.

“A sustained eight-week PR campaign promoting Corkmas and come to Cork at Christmas was undertaken, and the advertising value of print and online coverage received is in the region of €340,000."

A full report will be prepared and presented to the arts committee in due course, she said.

Mr Deasy said at Monday’s council meeting that the spend represented “an awful lot of money for the city”, and queried if footfall and spending in the city increased enough to justify the high cost.