And here we are again. Christmas 2017 is just a stone throw away and the DublinChristmasMarkets.com website is updated again.
As always there are changes and unfortunately no big improvement from last year. Dublin is still incapable to deliver what Belfast does very well and even Waterford does a much better job. Dublin City decided this year to get somehow involved with the Dublin Flea Christmas Market at the Point Village, but that is NOT a Christmas Market in the way you would expect. It is lots of stalls in a big office building. The other “office building Christmas Market” at Block B in Smithfield is not happening this year, instead there will be a one-weekend market at New Market Square in the Food Co-op and the Green Door Market.
The other big question every year is then “Will there be a Christmas Market at the CHQ?” and the answer is Yes and No. Remember the “I Believe Christmas Market” from two years ago, the market that proudly announced that it will be one of the top European Christmas Markets within 5 years? It never came back after the first year. This year an new attempt is made, but it is going for a completely different market:
On the George’s Dock platform an “Après Lodge” will await all fans of Christmas Parties and with it Après Dublin have also added a few market stalls next to the CHQ building. The information is still a little sparse, but I hear that there will be around 15 stalls. The opening times of the stalls are 12:00-17:00 on 30 Nov-03 Dec and then from 07-23 Dec. The other component is the Party aspect with room for 1500 people (surprising that so many are allowed on the platform considering the restrictions for the Oktoberfest!) and live band and DJ. Admission charges to the “Lodge” part are 16.29 per person or 318.39 for a table of 10. One food and drink voucher per person is included.
I will check out the Christmas Market part soon and will update this post when I have done so, but the focus of this event is clearly elsewhere, so I don’t expect something amazing.
In general, I keep calling the markets in Dublin around this time of the year: “Markets with a Christmas Theme”, instead of “Christmas Markets” and I don’t think I am unfair. :-)
