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Cork City Council Unveils Major Additions to Corkmas 2025

Cork City Council Unveils Major Additions to Corkmas 2025

Ft Boola Boom, Sing-Along Social, Cork Community Art Link, ROGU Fire Show, Kabin Crew, ChoralConFusion, Barrack Street Band + lots more.

Location: Bishop Lucey Park + Counting House Plaza, Cork City

 

Corkmas is shining brightly across the city, as the iconic Ferris Wheel has returned to Grand Parade and the Christmas Markets bring warmth and colour to Emmet Place. Building on this seasonal momentum, Cork City Council is pleased to unveil one of the key highlights of Corkmas 2025. This year marks the introduction of two major festive hubs: the newly reopened Bishop Lucey Park and the newly developed Counting House Plaza on South Main Street.

These two landmark locations will host an extensive programme of free family-friendly events over three weekends, running from 6 to 21 December. Workshops, performances, music, circus activities and community celebrations will animate both spaces throughout the month. A Council spokesperson expressed appreciation to BAM for enabling the temporary use of the new plaza for this year’s celebrations. Together, the upgraded park and plaza now create a welcoming, pedestrian-focused festive route linking Grand Parade with South Main Street, making it easy for visitors to enjoy everything from the Ferris Wheel to the full programme of events at Bishop Lucey Park and Counting House Plaza.

Bishop Lucey Park will become a vibrant heart of Christmas activity throughout the month, with a full programme running between 12pm and 6pm on selected dates. Families can look forward to a lively mix of festive games, creative workshops and Christmassy performances. Each day begins with free Christmas-themed games, including magnet mazes, candy-cane limbo and reindeer ring toss. A host of roaming circus performers - from stilt walkers to jugglers and playful hula-hoop artists - will bring added sparkle throughout the early afternoon. On selected days, children and adults can step into the world of circus skills in drop-in workshops where they can learn to juggle, spin plates or try their hand at hula-hooping.

Creative minds of all ages will enjoy Cork Community Art Link’s Christmas Sparkle workshops, where families can craft stars, reindeer and seasonal shapes of all sizes and decorate each piece in their own unique way. Festive drumming sessions with Drumadore will take place on 14 December, inviting families to feel the rhythm and create joyful music together. Live music will fill the park as The Underscore Orchestra, accompanied by Santa on a Bike, brings lively festive tunes on 14 and 20 December. The park also hosts a joyful kids’ disco on 6 and 21 December, with cheerful holiday hits, dancing and festive prizes, along with colourful facepainting sessions on 21 December courtesy of Happy Faces Cork.

Only a short stroll away, the newly opened Counting House Plaza will become Cork’s newest festive stage, presenting an exciting mix of musical performances, choral celebrations, dance displays and community showcases across the weekend of 6 and 7 December. The Saturday programme opens with the historic Barrack Street Band, followed by the energy and creativity of the Kabin Crew, Cork’s own drumming collective Boola Boom, and a vibrant evening performance from the genre-bending band Grooveline.

Sunday’s festivities bring a joyful celebration of song and community. The Sing-Along Social leads the crowd through favourite Christmas pop classics before young musicians from Mahon Community Concert Band and Barrack Street Youth Band come together in a special Music Generation collaboration. Voices of Cork, the Trish McCarthy School of Dance, Choral ConFusion, the Munster String Quartet and operatic soloist Emma Nash all take to the stage throughout the evening. The event concludes with Voices of Peace, an intercultural children’s and youth choir from the Cork Academy of Music and CreativeIrl, who will offer a heartfelt performance of Ukrainian Christmas songs, including the world-famous “Shchedryk” (“Carol of the Bells”), creating a resonant and memorable finale.

In addition to this weekend programme, the plaza will host a spectacular fire performance on Saturday 13 December, as Ireland’s leading fire arts company, ROGU Fire Arts, presents “Stories from the Book of Fire” at 5pm and again at 7pm - a visually stunning journey through myth and flame that promises to dazzle audiences of all ages.

#Corkmas #ChristmasInCork #NollaigIgCorcaigh

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