Turn Black Friday red for Cork
Black Friday is nearly here, but will you be buying anything?
If you do, try and buy local or certainly try and buy Irish.
Cork City Council have called on everyone to shop sustainably by shopping local and supporting local businesses across all sectors during Corkmas - which is the council’s new Christmas celebrations.
The city’s new immersive winter light experience in the city centre opened recently.
SOLAS is a large scale public interactive lighting experience which was unveiled in the plaza in Emmet Place.
It is the centre piece of Corkmas, a new festive campaign for Cork, which aims to increase footfall to the city over the festive period making the city a destination at Christmas.
Chief Executive of Cork City Council, Ann Doherty said: “Corkmas is about supporting local and celebrating, discovering, and re-discovering the many experiences, and traditions, new and old, that make Christmas time in Cork so unique.
“To encourage footfall to the city we are working closely with the city’s retail, hospitality, and cultural sector to better amplify the city’s diverse programme of festive activities.
“We ask people to support local this Christmas, shop sustainably and check out the city’s unique festive offering on corkmas.ie which features details of SOLAS and the very popular ferris wheel.”
The SOLAS light and sound experience will run every day until 21 December from 4pm to 11pm daily.
Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Kieran McCarthy said: “Christmas in Cork always brings a strong sense of nostalgia and a time for family or friends.
“Come into town. Meet up and catch up with old friends. Take in a different view of the city from the top of the ferris wheel. Enjoy the Christmas lights and the new SOLAS experience.
“My call this year to Corkonians is to re-discover town, shop local and enjoy the experience.”
Whatever you think about the council’s decision not to have a public turning of the Christmas lights this year, we should all still try and get to the city to support local.
This Saturday sees the official reopening of MacCurtain Street following the long-awaited completion of the MacCurtain Street Public Transport Improvement Scheme.
The ceremony takes place at 11am, lead by Tánaiste Micheál Martin.
There will be the unveiling of a commemorative plaque followed by a family fun event on MacCurtain Street, including street performance and facepainting.
MacCurtain Street is one of my favourite streets in the city so it’s great to see that it will finally looks its best again. Recently, two-way traffic returned to the street for the first time in half a century, which is going to be a shock to the system!