Why are Glasgow's winter events often such blunders?

When summer staggers to an end and Glasgow’s autumn and winter events programme arrives, I ready myself for a flurry of headlines about “chaos” and “mayhem”. Why can’t Scotland’s largest city get these mid-sized festivities right?

To be clear, I am not talking about the serious kind of chaos that results in tragedy, but rather the type of shambles that inspires an outpouring of angry posts on community Facebook pages or the local Reddit thread.

Glasgow has a knack for playing host to events that leave parents fuming and children in tears. The kind that families shell out for, spending far too much per head only to find their £40 went to the marketing budget, and they are left queuing for hours to look at a warehouse or park sparsely scattered with props.

The infamous Willy’s Chocolate Experience (that we are all sick to the back teeth of hearing about) is the benchmark for viral disaster. It involved a sparsely decorated warehouse, AI ads, and parents so enraged that the police were called. Right around the time my annual bout of seasonal affective disorder is kicking in, private events are ready to take Wonka’s place as Glasgow’s biggest blunder – none has been able to snatch the Wonka crown. Yet.

The first of this year was Fan Frontier’s GlasGHOST, which ran at the SEC from October 24 to 26. It was supposed to be “the ultimate Halloween experience in Glasgow” at £15 a pop for kids and £26 for adults. Families were outraged at the sad jumble of random inflatables and activities tossed around the cavernous convention centre.  TikTok branded it a “shambles” to say the least.

This was followed by The Forge Shopping Centre’s Christmas Switch On on November 8, featuring a K-pop Demon Hunters tribute band. There was nothing funny about this event that saw police called and overcrowding that left children fearing for their lives. The shopping centre assured families that safety measures had been taken.

There have been some palavers in the summer when it comes to festivals (like Junction 1), but at that time of year, there is daylight to play with, so it does not sting as badly. When it is dark and wet, an expensive calamity hits harder. Glasgow City Council’s tight budget has left a vacuum in the events calendar at this time of year, and private companies come in to fill the gap. But the council only cares that private operators are in line with their red tape; they don’t take responsibility for whether an event is actually good value. Organisers can charge what they want, and good luck getting your money back if you didn’t have a magical time.

Glasgow’s Hogmanay celebrations were dropped in 2011. The last Bonfire Night fireworks display at Glasgow Green was in 2019 before the council scrapped it indefinitely – a huge loss to the city’s civic calendar. They said at the time they would be focusing on delivering more Christmas entertainment “aimed at attracting visitors,” and herein lies the problem. The events that the council and its ALEO Glasgow Life organise always feel like they are for everyone except the people who live here. And so far, I have yet to hear anyone pick Glasgow over Edinburgh for a festive winter experience. The Christmas markets are lacklustre at best.

The best of a bad bunch, GlasGLOW at the Botanics, is the most popular mid-sized event that occurs over this period, if you can afford it. Every year, itison’s Halloween adjacent light show takes over the West End for several weeks, attracting around 80,000 punters. They tread through the park to gaze at the lights and eat marshmallows and enjoy it as much as they can, because there is nothing else. The council has left the events ring, and itison doesn't have any real competition.

Locally, this divides opinion. There was a long-held belief in the area (I thought this when I lived there) that the council was making a good chunk of change from GlasGLOW. But an invoice for the 2023 event leaked to The Herald this week shows that that itison is getting a pretty good deal, actually. The council is, residents say, undercharging the business by way of the Environmental Levy, which is charged based on the capacity of the Botanics and not the number of tickets itison sells. The council is effectively charging for 24,300 people based on capacity, but itison welcomes around 80,000 people to the event each year. The firm pays £1607 per day for the hire of the Botanic Gardens and is also charged for any damages caused by the event.

The event brings millions into the economy of the West End, but as one resident pointed out, there are other areas of the city that could seriously benefit from this influx of cash. The West End does just fine. But this is a private event, Glasgow City Council does not have the power to move it to Alexandra Park or Ruchill Park, and the local authority has “no plans to stage a lighting event in Glasgow Botanic Gardens” or anywhere else.

Because the council has essentially washed its hands of hosting civic events around this time of year, the most affluent area of the city gets to celebrate. The bosses at itison are “local residents” themselves, and the firm’s chief Oli Norman owns nearby venues Brel and Epicures of Hyndland, among others. The brand is very West End coded.

The rest of the city is not completely devoid of events. Community groups put on fun activities in their respective neighbourhoods and parks. But without the council taking initiative to drive civic events that have the power to bring large swathes of the city together (like Bonfire Night or Hogmanay), it feels like Glasgow is missing something.

Actual celebrations give us something to look forward to, but they need to feel like they are for the people of Glasgow and not just set up to attract visitors from elsewhere. That can only happen if the local authority works with private operators to ensure that families and friends are getting a good quality event at the right price point, in places like the city centre that are generally accessible. It would be a good reason to call your pal and say, Get You In Town.

Marissa MacWhirter is a columnist and feature writer at The Herald, and the editor of The Glasgow Wrap. The newsletter is curated between 5-7am each morning, bringing the best of local news to your inbox each morning without ads, clickbait, or hyperbole. Oh, and it’s free. She can be found on X @marissaamayy1