Exciting programme of festive events is being explored for Chichester

Cllr Jess Brown-Fuller, Cabinet Member for Culture and Events at Chichester District Council, says: “As a council, we want to ensure that Chichester is an attractive and exciting place to visit over the Christmas period. Building on recent successes such as the Culture Spark programme, Cross Market & More events and laser light shows at the Chichester Canal, the council will be exploring options for experiential events to add to a Christmas market that we have already secured. We will be working alongside Chichester BID, who will once again be delivering the beautiful Christmas lights.

“We are particularly mindful of the need for more activities that will appeal to a younger audience, and we will be exploring live music, escape rooms and virtual reality experiences to help make sure that people of all ages feel a buzz about the city.

“We are aware that a lot of people were looking forward to being able to ice skate in the city again and so the council has been exploring the possibility of bringing back the popular ice rink that was held in Priory Park in 2018. However, regrettably the council has had to make a difficult decision not to go ahead with this due to an increase in the costs associated with delivering this.

“We’re determined to do everything we can to make Chichester a vibrant, welcoming, and exciting place to be at Christmas and so we were really hoping to have been able to come to a different, more positive decision about this. We had been preparing for an enhanced ice rink experience but having gone through a rigorous procurement process, we were unable to secure an operator to meet the high standards within the budget available.

“We are encouraging people to follow our social media sites and to sign up for our monthly email newsletter at www.chichester.gov.uk/newsalerts to keep up to date with the very latest announcements. Coming up, we have some exciting family events during May half-term, including our popular Chichester Roman Week – and the Summer Street Party will be held again on the first Sunday in July. These are just a few examples of what we already have planned.”

The council also has an online calendar of events taking place across the district, which can be found at: www.chichester.gov.uk/whatson