Update on the council's events programme

The council’s events programme aims to attract people to our town centre and provide free entertainment to support businesses, whilst creating a vibrant, busy environment that is a great place to visit, shop and enjoy.  

There is a packed programme of events that people can take advantage of throughout the year, ranging from Darlington by the Sea, Pride Weekend to the Christmas Lights event among others.

Last year’s fireworks display in South Park was re-introduced as a one-off event after 12 years and was a successful and well-run event. However, it was extremely expensive to deliver to the current standards of event management and safety that exist today. Therefore, having reviewed last year’s event costs, it has been decided not to include a fireworks display in the events programme this year.

There was an amount of funding earmarked for a fireworks event this year, but this is not enough to cover the costs and a charge would have to have been introduced and/or other means of external funding secured.

We are keen to ensure our events programme is accessible to all and the money in the budget identified to contribute to an event is re-purposed, given the current cost of living challenges. We will share more details about how we intend to deliver that in the coming months.

Councillor Stephen Harker, Leader of Darlington Borough Council, said: “As a council, we are committed to delivering our varied events programme, and keen to build on that success. Although last year’s fireworks display was successful and well-attended, it was an expensive event to deliver to modern standards of event management and safety. The money approved in the budget earlier this year would not cover the costs and would have meant a relatively high ticket price would have had to be charged.

“Given the current financial pressures on households, we believe a free events programme, that is accessible to all, is the right approach and the money in the budget identified to go towards the cost of a fireworks display, should be re-purposed.”

For details of town centre events, visit www.enjoydarlington.co.uk