Leeds is latest city to cancel Christmas market, citing budget pressures
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.
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Glasgow, Cardiff and Hackney have all cancelled their Bonfire
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