Christmas event on Parker’s Piece postponed to 2024

The new festive event will feature an ice skating rink, carousel and market stalls but won't take place until next Christmas.

No Christmas event was held at Parker’s Piece last year after the former organisers of the annual ‘North Pole’ event pulled out.

The city council has now appointed a new company to run an annual festive event in the city for the next four years, however Seventa Events said it will not be holding the first event until 2024.

The company said it wants the event to be the “absolute best it can be” for the city, and that it wanted to speak with local traders, suppliers and businesses, but said this would take time.

The event is expected to include an open air ice rink, a lodge bar, Christmas market stalls in traditional timber cabins, food and drink stalls, a Santa workshop, a Christmas tree maze, curling lanes, a carousel, and a big wheel.

No “thrill fairground rides” have been planned, to reduce the noise and light impact of the event.

Councillor Sam Carling, the executive councillor for open spaces and city services, said a winter event at Parker’s Piece was important for the city.

He said the plans offered a “high-quality” event that people would be able to enter for free, although explaining activities within the market would include costs.

Councillor Katie Porrer, one of the ward councillors for the area, said the event did appear to be a “high quality offering”, but said there was still a “sticking point”.

She said the plans referred to a ferris wheel being included at the Christmas market, but said this wheel was actually going to be the observation wheel that already has permission to run in Parker’s piece during a separate six months of the year.

Cllr Porrer said she did not feel the plans had been “transparent” in showing the existing observation wheel would be included in the event, highlighting that the illustrative image of the market showed a red and white wheel.

She said she wanted to see some form of winter event take place at Parker’s Piece, but “just not with this 34 metre high bright white wheel attached”.

When a decision on the plans was put to a vote the committee councillors voted unanimously in favour of approving the application.