Winterval 24.

I must be living in a different place. I was out with kids at a couple of weekends and the atmosphere was magic and teh crowds were huge which must be testament to something. The small train is necessary to weave its way through arrow streets and our lot enjoyed it. The horse and carriage was problematic with the kind of traffic volumes around the city centre.

I am sure things can always be improved, but your comments read a little grinch like. Are you sure you are just not knocking it from afar as per usual in this country?

I for one thought it was great this year as did the kids. Any evening or weekend that I was in town it was packed. The big top was a nice edition for the adults.

The Santa we saw in Medieval Museum was fantastic.

There was a time when everyone was complaining about the train causing traffic issues, when they horses were present there were calls for animal safety and further traffic concerns.

It might have been just me but I thought it was one of the best wintervals this year.

Nothing wrong with at all this year, great atmosphere around town in the lead up to Christmas.

I agree but that is purely down to the council and not winterval. O connell St looked really well. The Quays could be far better, lights needed for between dunnes and Clair's and lighting needed in JRS.

Another great addition this year was the parade and Pyrotechnics display at bishops palace.

The maintenance of both Christmas lighting and street lighting is fairly shocking

The lack of maintenance is a huge issue for the lights I just can’t understand it.

Going slightly off topic but the city centre is in need of an overhaul on lighting, the Quay especially. New LED lighting is badly needed but not just swapping out the current lighting for LEDs. A completely new lighting system needs to be installed.

Lady lane, Arundel square, Michael street since the new LEDs were installed look great and are nice and bright at night time.

Council have an unfortunate habit of installed up lights that look great, but then they burn out and are never replaced

Every year (at least they used to) Winterval put out a questionnaire for the public to fill in about what they enjoyed didn't enjoy, improvements and ideas etc, it would be worth filling that out if you felt it was disappointing. If they don't currently do this it would be worth dropping them an email with your ideas/suggestions.

Interestingly you say it needs fresh ideas, as it's stale but at the same time you seem to suggest it needs a return of old ideas such as the horses, train and movies at the reg?

As for the "real" Santa, I presume you mean Gino. I have to say the Santa we saw at Winterval this year was amazing, from his coat, real beard and how he was with the kids and the magical setting under the medieval museum.

At the end of the day Christmas is for the kids and once the kids enjoy Winterval then that is a fairly large box ticked.

Secondly it brings in large crowds to town and that seemed to also be the case this year, I felt it was one of the busiest years in town compared to other years. That would be another large box ticked.

Sometimes as adults if is very difficult to see things through a child's eyes but what might seem stale to you could be magical for a child.

LED lighting is slowly starting to be installed around the city. Tramore is almost complete. The issue with the Quay is there is need for lighting down the central median as the road is wide and the lights don’t cover the width of the road. Maintenance is also a huge issue. One streetlight outside the old ulster bank is missing the actual light head with over a year now.

From Waterford City Council

"Waterford has just celebrated its first year under the title of the European City of Christmas and the 12th year of the Winterval Waterford Festival, and new record-breaking data released from the digital counters across Waterford City show that on the Winterval Festival dates just over 1.8 million (after removing the local population base) unique visitors joined Waterford’s festive celebrations."

1.8 million unique visitors, I'd say that has been pretty successful.

It broke all previous records and broke any goals that were set for 2024 👏

I agree about the stalls… Mucho tat on offer… Visited a few yrs ago and there was much more artisan stuff in the stalls… A lot for the kids but not much for the oldies… they would want to up their game as nearly every city n town in the country is onboard the market lark @ this point… Sure there was lots of people walking about but all were probably thinkin "WTF? Is that it?" If the organisers dont refresh it than it will become just like the amusement park out the road in Tramore. Same thing happened to Spraoi - amazing in the 90s than lost its elan as time passed. Now every town has a "festival".

There speaks a poster from County Kilkenny who describes our city as "your town". Says it all really.

First in after the finishing line with criticism.

If the Mona Lisa was in Waterford Treasures Museum you would be telling everyone "its very small"!