Manchester Christmas Markets 2020 have officially been cancelled

The Manchester Christmas Markets have been cancelled for this year, it has now been officially announced. 

It has been confirmed that the 2020 Christmas Markets in Manchester will no longer be going ahead due to the Covid-19 pandemic, after months of speculation. 

This year would have marked the 21st year of Manchester Christmas Markets.

The markets normally open around the middle of November and run right up until Christmas with thousands of people from all over the UK and world heading to the city to see the famous markets. 

There was talk that this year’s event could go ahead on a smaller scale, and the Christmas Markets were absent from a list of events that were cancelled recently, including Bonfire and Fireworks displays, the Christmas lights switch-on and New Year’s Eve fireworks.

However, Councillor Pat Karney today confirmed that the proposed smaller markets didn’t meet public health approval. He added that the council ‘could never take any risks’ with people’s wellbeing, so have therefore cancelled the event.

Mr Karney said: “We’ve cancelled everything. It’s not met our commercial and public health tests, so the three markets in those locations have been cancelled, and won’t take place.

“It was a million miles from the traditional Christmas Markets, which obviously people would have been very anxious about.

“Wall-to-wall markets was never part of our planning on it, we’re not that daft. The health of all of us, we could never take any risks with that.

“It’s going to be a very unusual Christmas in Manchester but what we’re going to do is put up additional lighting through the city centre and more static lighting attractions.

“I don’t want Manchester to have a North Korean Christmas.