Lisburn’s major Christmas lights show has been suspended until further notice due to large crowds gathering on Saturday.
The council confirmed in a statement that due to a ‘significant’ increase in numbers viewing the display on Saturday, animations have been cancelled.
The light tunnel is also to be turned off.
The Lisburn Lights Festival will cost £535,000 this year, and includes an animated Christmas tree, 100 metre metre light tunnel and a six metre reindeer on Comber Road.
It is understood that about half that - £240,000 - is part of a three-year contract associated with the annual running of the festival.
In a statement, Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council said the decision was taken for health and safety reasons.
A spokesperson said: “Due to the popularity of the light animations in Lisburn, we have been closely monitoring the situation in recent days. We implemented additional measures over the weekend to ensure that people could enjoy the animations safely.
“However, we have noted a significant increase in the number of people in the city today (Saturday 5 December) to view the lights. As a result, we have decided to suspend the animations until further notice. The lights will remain on, but the animated displays will not be operating at the scheduled times. In addition, the lights in the tunnel will be temporarily turned off.
“We apologise to those who were looking forward to viewing the animations over the coming week. However, this decision has been taken with the health and safety of everyone visiting our city in mind.
“We will be reviewing the situation very carefully and will provide an update in due course.”
Green Party councillor Si Lee told Belfast Live that there have been ongoing safety concerns.
He said: “Basically the issue is that people wanted to take selfies and that has create a large queue and a backlog.
“We’re obviously very concerned about safety and for that reason it has been called off.
“I had raised concerns about the safety of this - the theory behind the light show was right but during Covid this there was always a danger something like this could happen, especially when there’s so little to do.”
