Dublin's Winter Lights decision 'not a U-turn'

Head of Events at Dublin City Council Tony Smithers has said the capital's Winter Lights Festival will be running in December as before but it is being extended to nine weeks up to the beginning of February and it is not a U-turn.

It follows backlash earlier this week when DCC announced in a press release that it was moving the festival from December to January.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland on Wednesday, Dublin City Lord Mayor Daryl Bannon said having the winter lights between mid-January to St Bridget's Day would "light up Dublin ... and attract people to the city when footfall is down".

The festival began in 2018 and has national and international themes with light projections and installations throughout Dublin city centre in December.

Speaking on Morning Ireland today, Mr Smithers said: "To clarify, we were moving our Winter Lights as an extension for the projections and the lights in December."

He said usually there would be five weeks of lights and projections and now there will be nine weeks.

Mr Smithers said it was never intended that it was not going to happen in December and that the council begins planning its Christmas events from early February onwards.

In relation to DCC's press release last Tuesday saying Winter Lights will be moving from December to the New Year, Mr Smithers said "in relation to that ... we are moving to January as an extension. Maybe there was a small bit of communication around that".

"I can give you certain clarity that nothing has changed. We were always going to have our lighting projections in December, Christmas themes. We were going to have our fantastic Christmas events and celebrate Christmas," he said.

Mr Smithers said it was not a U-turn and that "100% the story has not changed".

"The fact is, we are expanding our Christmas experiences, we will have two Twinkle Towns, we will have one northside, one southside," he said.

He said it will help footfall and businesses and that all the events are free.