Leeds has become the latest city to cancel its annual Christmas market and all its bonfire and fireworks celebrations due to “significant budget pressures”.
Large-scale public events have been dropped in towns and cities across the UK as councils and organisers struggle to fund them amid rising costs and the need to prioritise essential services.
Leeds city council said it could not spare the £200,000 needed to run its six Bonfire Night events, and that the German Christmas market would not be feasible due to rising travel and work visa costs for its partners in Frankfurt council.
In a statement, Leeds council said: “Following the pandemic and combined with foreign travel work visa costs and complications, it was mutually agreed with our friends in Frankfurt that it was no longer feasible to bring the German market back to Leeds.”
The Leeds Christmas market, which normally attracts a quarter of a million visitors to Millennium Square each year, is not the only one to be pulled this year.
The organisers of the popular Glasgow Christmas market, which usually takes place across George Square and St Enoch Square, announced last month the event was cancelled with no explanation.
Last week, Angels Event Experience – which recently won the contract to run Edinburgh’s Christmas festival and also runs London’s Hyde Park Christmas market – pulled out, leaving the city scrambling to find another organiser.
Cambridge is also facing the same challenge, with event organiser Arena stepping back from organising the city’s annual North Pole Christmas event.
Glasgow, Cardiff and Hackney have all cancelled their Bonfire Night events, citing rising costs. Hackney council said it needed to “weigh up our priorities as our finances continue to come under pressure”, while Cardiff blamed “escalating costs and organisational burdens” for the cancellation of its 40-year-old event.
On the cancellation of its Bonfire Night celebrations and fireworks, including the 70,000-spectator Roundhay Park event, Salma Arif, Leeds council’s executive member for public health and active lifestyles, said: “It is obviously very disappointing for residents that bonfire and firework events cannot restart this year, however the council must work hard on cutting all non-essential spend in the current financial climate.
“We certainly did not take this decision lightly and we know that this news will come as a real disappointment to many people, and this disappointment is something that we share.”
