The Christmas tree countdown and light switch-on event is to return to the City Centre this year, but it will be beside Primark instead of in front of City Hall due to what a council officer describes as “an incredibly tight budget.”
Elected representatives at a Belfast City Council committee meeting this week agreed to a combination of a switch-on event and city-centre wide programme for Christmas 2023. It will involve a ‘switch on’ event on a small riser stage at Castle Junction/Donegall Place, beside 2 Royal Avenue, formerly the Tesco, and the Primark at Bank Building.
In March Belfast Councillors agreed a return of the Christmas tree countdown and light switch-on event as part of the city’s celebrations this year, after a surge of criticism from the public about the lack of the traditional switch-on in front of City Hall in recent years.
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Last November the council spread the city lights switch-on across the city, with music and lighting and animation at various venues. There was a stage set up on Donegall Place on the night of the switch-on, and 2 Royal Avenue became a new venue for Christmas events.
Councillors were told by council officers the traditional Xmas tree switch-on event had been discontinued for “health and safety” reasons. While the range of activities were generally lauded by elected representatives, some questioned the dismissal of the count down and switch on, which was last performed in front of City Hall in 2018.
At the council’s City Growth and Regeneration Committee meeting this week, councillors were given three options for Xmas events in the city this year. They were: a return to the pre-Covid switch-on style event, costing £123,000, to continue with a city-centre wide programme of animation and entertainment as per 2021 and 2022, costing £115,000, or to combine a switch-on event and city-centre wide programme of animation and entertainment as per 2021 and 2022, with an allocation for subsequent weekends.
Councillors went with the final option, at a cost of £123,000. The council report states: “A ‘switch on’ element, could take place on a small riser stage/platform at Castle Junction/Donegall Place, close to 2 Royal Avenue - allowing the audience within Donegall Place to view the lighting of the tree and festive lighting within the immediate city centre, without the requirement to close Donegall Square North.
“A larger PA system would be required for this element. The entertainment throughout the city centre would be programmed over a two-hour period and would accommodate the parade element delivered in 2022.
“An allocation of the budget would deliver activity at 2 Royal Ave (a success in 2022, and wet weather contingency offering) and weekends in the run up to Christmas, supplemented by other city centre activity. However, to accommodate this expenditure there would be a reduction in the allocation to both entertainment and lighting displays.”
Sinn Féin Councillor Conor Maskey said: “There was an obvious sense of disappointment around the city when we didn’t have that (switch-on) event, so the hybrid model of option three definitely makes sense.”
DUP Councillor Sarah Bunting said: “The Christmas light switch-on in the past has been to the backdrop of City Hall, and that is the iconic provision.” She asked if the City Hall event could be continued.
A council officer told the committee that regarding the Christmas spend the council was on “an incredibly tight budget.”
He added: “We have challenges. If you do the Christmas light switch-on in the front of City Hall as was done in previous years - and we have taken a considerable amount of health and safety advice on this - the interaction of the Christmas Market, Chichester Street, and the need to do a road closure will increase costs very significantly.
"You will need to have a very significant piece of infrastructure with regards to the events management office, an awful lot of Eventsec staff, and a lot of stewarding.”
He added: “If you do that you remove any opportunity for any other activity in and around the city centre and other areas. In line with the financial pressures that the council is under, we have not retained the budget we had in previous years for Christmas activity.”
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