Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr Joe Kavanagh and Lady Mayoress Stephanie Kavanagh watch as Cork city lights up for Christmas and kickstarts the city's seasonal celebrations. Photo: Darragh Kane

The big switch to a smaller event

The countdown to Christmas has begun!

The streets of Cork city have been transformed into a festive wonderland with over 6.8km of lights glistening throughout the city for Christmas.

Cork City Council and its team of electricians have spent the last few weeks working tirelessly, checking the lights and making sure they are ready for Christmas.

The city is positively glowing as over 35 trees adorned with magical lightning for Christmas light up the streets of the city.

The Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Joe Kavanagh said: “I am thrilled to see Cork light up for Christmas. This year has been a very difficult and challenging year for everybody. We hope that the Christmas lights in Cork will being some festive cheer into people’s lives which is much needed this year.”

The switching on of the Christmas lights kicks start the city’s seasonal celebrations and a big promotional drive by Cork City Council and the Cork Business Association calling on people to shop in Cork and to shop locally for Christmas.

People are being encouraged to shop local and to support Cork businesses who have had a very difficult year due Covid-19.

Glow, A Cork Christmas Celebration has been reimagined this year and will begin in early December. The festival will feature creative festive window installations in the city centre which is a reimagined ode to panto in Cork.

The window installations will focus on a much-loved Cork tradition by bringing some of the most popular panto titles to life in window installations with plenty of Cork highlights and nuances included to make each and every attendee feel as much a part of the magic as if they were in a real interactive theatre!

For more, visit corkchristmascelebration.ie.