The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Dinosaurs and magic bring Perth’s Winter Festival to a close
EVENT: Festivities expected to bring in £2m to help boost city centre as Light Nights hailed for attracting crowds
A dazzling lights festival which brought magic and dinosaurs to the Fair City has been hailed a roaring success.
Thousands attended this year’s Riverside Light Nights events at the Norie-Miller Trail.
The nine-day extravaganza launched with a celebration of Robert Burns and closed at the weekend with two nights of festivities to mark Chinese New Year.
Friday night’s Jurassic Perth event sold out before the gates opened. Families queued up across Queen’s Bridge and along Tay Street to the High Street junction.
The event marks the end of the city’s Winter Festival, which kicked off with Halloween events in October.
The high point was the Christmas lights switch-on, which saw about 90,000 people in the city centre for a night of live music and fireworks.
An economic assessment of the festival is being drawn up and will be presented to councillors in the coming weeks.
It is expected to show that the festival events helped generate around £2 million for the city centre.
The Light Nights were organised by Perth and Kinross Council, although the Witchcraft and Wizardry and Jurassic Perth events were co-ordinated by a third party and – for the first time – charged for admission.
Environment and infrastructure convener Angus Forbes said the event had helped bring in visitors from outside the region. “I was really delighted with the success of the Riverside Light Nights this year,” he said. “It was good to see a variety of events and they all seemed to be popular.”
He said: “I went to two nights and the people I spoke to were all having a great time. One family I chatted to had travelled from south of Edinburgh for the day and were staying overnight which is great to hear. They said what Perth do is far better than what’s on offer in Edinburgh.”
Mr Forbes added: “These events bring people from all over the area to Perth where they not only enjoy themselves but spend money and contribute to the economy of Perth and Kinross, hopefully they also go home and tell others what a wonderful place Perth is.”
The council has so far refused to say how much it spent on acts for shows at Christmas and on St Andrew’s Day.
“They said what Perth do is far better than what’s on offer in Edinburgh. COUNCILLOR ANGUS FORBES