The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Council bosses hail success of Riverside Light Nights festival
Council bosses say they are delighted with the success of this year’s Riverside Light Nights festival, despite a slight dip in attendance.
Latest figures released by Perth and Kinross Council show an average of 3,420 people visited the Norie-Miller Trail illuminations each night.
Last year’s event attracted an average attendance of 3,689.
The 2020 celebration was scaled down from 16 to nine nights and featured evenings themed around dinosaurs, wizards and Robert Burns.
The programme ended with a Chinese New Year celebration complete with dancing dragon and firecrackers. A total of 37,080 people attended the nine-day celebration.
The Light Nights were organised by the local authority, although the Witchcraft and Wizardry and Jurassic Perth events were co-ordinated by a third party and introduced admission fees.
A council spokeswoman said: “Combining spectacular light displays with live entertainment on the banks of the River Tay has proved a winning combination once again with visitors numbers reaching the tens of thousands.”
She said: “A combination of five free nights and for the first time ticketed events proved to be popular and captured the imagination of visitors.
“We want to thank all of the event organisers and performers for their hard work and dedication to delivering another great display of lights and entertainment.”
The 16-night event in 2019 was attended by 59,030 people.
The Light Nights are the last major event on the city’s Winter Festival calendar.
A full economic assessment will be revealed later this year.