Illuminating York a hit this year

KIPPA MATTHEWS - COPYRIGHT NOTICE

This year’s Illuminating York event is proving to be popular with residents and visitors alike.

After a slow start (probably the result of the bad publicity following last years poor show) ticket sales are increasing.

This despite the increase in prices with children being discouraged from attending the paid for events at Cliffords Tower and in the Museum Gardens.

The Councils budget for the event is understood to be £175,000 with the Arts Council contributing £73,000 of this.

Budget click to enlarge

Budget click to enlarge

Free events like the illuminated A4 locos at the railway Museum are very popular.

Until 2011, the costs of the event were all covered by sponsorship. The new Labour Council introduced admission charges although the total costs of staging the event remained broadly the same.

The event continues tonight (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday)

Ticket details can be found here.

Concern over 20% Illuminating York price hike

Liberal Democrats have raised concerns that ticket prices for this year’s Illuminating York Festival have significantly increased despite the 2012 event being branded a “disappointment”.

Illuminating York 2013

Illuminating York 2013

The Labour run City of York Council introduced charging for the – previously free – event last year. There were complaints about the £5 admission charge while Vic Reeves’ ‘Wonderland’ production received a backlash of negative comments and poor reviews.

However, the admission charges and £26,000 contribution from council funds meant the event made a £16,000 ‘profit’ which Labour promised would be “invested in next year’s event”.

Many hoped that this promise would see a return to the previous free admissions policy.

However, this year’s event, which will runs from October 30th – November 2nd, sees admission charges for the overall festival for adults increase from £5 to £6 and for under 16s from £1 to £5, with under 5’s still going free.

This means that a family of four, with two school-age children, would see their ticket costs rise by a whopping 83%.

The increase has been described as contrary to the Labour Leaders statements about the need to control the cost of living

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