Almost €350k spent on festive Corkmas events last year

Almost €350,000 was spent on Cork city centre’s Christmas events last year, with only just under €75,000 in income received from the ferris wheel and markets.

Corkmas took place from November 14 to December 31, with over six weeks of sustained festive activity in the city centre.

They included the Corkmas parade and switch-on of the Christmas lights, Corkmas markets at Emmet Place, the ferris wheel at Grand Parade, family programming and games in Bishop Lucey Park, and concerts at the Counting House.

Rebecca Loughry, Cork City Council’s director of corporate, community, and cultural affairs, provided costs of each element to Independent councillor Albert Deasy at Monday’s council meeting.

A total of €230,363 was spent on the Corkmas festival programme and delivery, €98,455 on the Corkmas Parade, and €14,452 on communications, promotion, and marketing.

This brings costs to just over €343,000, but income earned from the ferris wheel and the Christmas markets meant the net cost to Cork City Council for the festival was just under €269,000.

Metrics

Ms Loughry said: “The metrics used to evaluate the economic value and impact to the city centre include attendance and footfall to events, reach, and value of PR [public relations] coverage in promotion of the city centre at Christmas, and through direct feedback from business and social media. 

"The overall footfall at directly programmed Corkmas events above is approximately €185,000. This is calculated through counting footfall at events, calculating density of attendance per square metre and ticket sales.

“A sustained eight-week PR campaign promoting Corkmas and come to Cork at Christmas was undertaken, and the advertising value of print and online coverage received is in the region of €340,000."

A full report will be prepared and presented to the arts committee in due course, she said.

Mr Deasy said at Monday’s council meeting that the spend represented “an awful lot of money for the city”, and queried if footfall and spending in the city increased enough to justify the high cost.