The DublinTown Grafton Street Christmas Lights were turned on at 6:50 p.m. on Thursday, November 10th. The official switch on was broadcast live with FM104 from the balcony of the historic Bewley’s Café Grafton Street. This magical moment was streamed simultaneously on DublinTown’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram social media pages. We have linked up with the Little Blue Heroes Foundation this year where Marlie Meehan from Eastwall, Evie Purdy and Sean Og Preston both from Tallaght, all four years of age, pushed the magic button to turn on the lights. This officially marked the start of the festive season in the capital.
We have taken on the responsibility of decorating the city with breathtaking Christmas lights for the busiest shopping and socialising season of the year for more than 13 years. Their presence brightens the city and increases the energy and enthusiasm as Christmas gets closer. The public now uses the lights as a biggest attraction, and each evening, you can see people in the city centre taking selfies in front of them to capture the magic of Christmas.
The DublinTown Christmas lights consist of over 1 million low energy LED light bulbs, over 300,000 individual light bulbs on Grafton Street alone and approx. 4km of lights in total. ?The lights are now a feature attraction for the public who can be seen each evening taking pictures and selfies under the lights. All the lighting used in the DublinTown’s Christmas lights are low energy LED lighting which are regulated by time clocks so the time the lights are illuminated on each street is controlled. The entire Christmas lights display on Grafton Street for example use just one third of the electricity used by just one home electric shower.
Commenting, Richard Guiney CEO of DublinTown said: ‘The past few years have been extremely challenging for Dublin city centre businesses.? Stores have been gearing up for Christmas and are ready to meet customer needs. We all want to see a vibrant capital city and to make that a reality we need to make sure we support city businesses at this vital time of year, and if purchasing on-line the public are encouraged to buy from sites that support Irish jobs. Shopping and socialising in the city centre of Dublin under the iconic Christmas lights is a key Christmas experience for many. ?We invite everyone to come to town and make new Christmas memories under the magic of the DublinTown Christmas lights. ”
