Organisers of a Lake District town’s popular Christmas celebration event have been forced to pull the plug for 2023 due to increasing costs.
Windermere Christmas Celebration – which began in 2016 – will not go ahead this year.
Last year’s event was almost cancelled when funding was cut shortly before it was due to take place and it was only thanks to Mountain Goat stepping in at the last minute that it was able to be held.
Now, organisers have released a statement saying it was not viable to hold the event this year.
It said: “Unfortunately, an event which is not self-sustainable in this economic climate is not an event which can go ahead.
“The present reality of running large scale events is the significant increase of costs, with the financial reality being we cannot proceed forecasting a loss in 2023.
“We have worked hard in the background to keep the event going, opening the door up to the local community and businesses to encourage extra volunteers and financial assistance, but unfortunately the support and financial assistance offered was not enough to cover an event in 2023.
“We still had hoped we could keep the event running. We had also made an approach to two different local organisations who we believe would have been better positioned to tap into charitable funding streams and generate further volunteer support, both key for a safe and successful event.
“Unfortunately, we have recently heard that becoming involved is not a possibility for the final organisation we spoke to. We thank all those who showed interest for their time and efforts.
Looking forward to the future we leave the door very much open, as an organising team we would happily support an organisation or group who wish to become involved in a future event.
“We would like to thank all the sponsors, stall holders, volunteers and of course the thousands of visitors for the support over the years, without it the event could not have gone ahead.”
