Lincoln Christmas Market cancelled
A meeting's taken place where the decision was made
Last updated 21st Feb 2023
The Lincoln Christmas Market has been cancelled.
The City of Lincoln Council have decided to instead use the funding for the markets to hold several smaller events throughout the year, including a 6 week Christmas in Lincoln.
The decision was made at a City of Lincoln Council meeting.
Earlier this month the City of Lincoln Council revealed plans to scrap the iconic event.
Safety concerns were a key reason for the decision
The four day historic market delighted over 300,000 visitors to the city last year and is said to provide a huge tourism boost with many local traders saying it's vital to their business.
They say it's as a result of feedback from locals and that having so many people in such a small space can be uncomfortable.
Instead they said a programme of smaller events throughout the year would be preferable. They said they're confident will bring visitors to the city.
Since then there's been a campaign to see if the market could be saved.
Owner of a photography shop on Burton Road, Rachel Whitaker decided to set up a campaign to host the markets but improve its logistics.
The market has got "too big"
Following the decision we spoke to Leader of the City of Lincoln Council Ric Metclafe.
He told us: "With change comes a lot of uncertainty - businesses hate uncertainty."
"That's why we've told people early in the year and why we're going to allow some time for a consultation".
"The market has got too big, that has been affecting the quality of the experience our visitors have."
"If we allowed that to continue, we could get into a situation where the market became unsafe and we can't allow that to happen."
We spoke to campaigner Rachel Whittaker after the meeting.
If these smaller events don't deliver what the Christmas market does I'll start another campaign to bring it back
"I feel like what they've just done is cancelled an event which happens during spending season, that pulls in a massive amount of people to the city and they're going to replace it with events that are just not going to see the same spend."
"I feel like that decision had already been made".
"If the year long calendar of events don't deliver what the Christmas market does which is 2 million to the immediate economy and 13 million to the wider economy maybe I'll start a campaign to bring the Christmas market to Lincoln."