The third weekend of Kilkenny’s Yulefest Christmas continues to draw the crowds to the medieval city centre as the festival enters the advent Christmas shopping season. Dozens of stalls featuring local craft, food and art producers will attract thousands of shoppers this weekend, while they will be entertained by live music on the festival bandstand and all under the glow of the city’s sparkling new lighting displays.
Festival Manager, Marian Flannery, said they hope that the weekend will surpass the record numbers the city has attracted so far.
“We are hugely grateful for all the fantastic compliments we have received so far from locals and other visitors to the market and the city centre. The market on the city’s Parade, with our historic 12th century castle as its backdrop, is a unique shopping, musical and socialising gathering place. We are delighted to see it full of families, groups of friends and curious tourists lapping up the great produce on offer and just as importantly, the real festive atmosphere we have created in the city’s heart.
This of course helps all of the city centre’s traders and the footfall in the city over the last few weekends has been really heartening to see. We are hugely conscious that hundreds of jobs in the retail and hospitality sector rely on local and tourist support and we are happy that our market and activities are helping to attract customers to support those businesses.”
Director of Services for Kilkenny County Council, Tim Butler, said that the council are delighted with the response so far and are looking forward to that continuing right up to Christmas Eve.
“As a Council, we are doing our bit with free parking being provided this week in the market yard (11th to 14th) every morning from 9am to 12noon and free parking every evening from 6pm to 2am for those socialising and shopping in the city. We will also be providing free parking in the grounds of County Hall on John Street next weekend and on the weekend of December 23rd and Christmas Eve, up until 6.30pm.
We are also hugely proud of the majorly enhanced lighting system in the city centre and are confident that Yulefest and all its activities in the city and county are attracting people from all over the Southeast and producing real economic benefits for our local businesses. Above all, we encourage every Kilkenny citizen to shop local and to support the businesses who give so much back to our communities.’
For more information see www.yulefestkilkenny.ie
