Open for Lunch and Noel Sydney have been scrapped by the government

Sydney is closed for lunch and Christmas has been cancelled, after the state government axed two events championed by former premier Dominic Perrottet to get people back spending money in the CBD.

Former NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet looking at the fireworks with his daughter Beatrice during a visit with his wife Helen and their children to the Noel Christmas markets at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney last year. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Sydney is closed for lunch and Christmas has been cancelled, after the state government axed two events championed by former premier Dominic Perrottet to get people back spending money in the CBD.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that following a push from Destination NSW bean-counters, both the “Open for Lunch” and “Noel Sydney” Christmas festival have been scrapped by the Minns government.

Tourism Minister John Graham last night justified the decision arguing that both events were as “effective as shooting taxpayer money out of a cannon” when it came to attracting interstate and overseas visitors.

The Open for Lunch event, which closed parts of the CBD and Parramatta for a massive daytime festival of food and entertainment, was launched in 2021 as a post-Covid measure to get people back spending money in the CBD.

The Noel Sydney Christmas Festival – which attracted more than 100,000 visitors last year – was spruiked as a “magical Christmas celebration” over more than two weeks.

Former NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet looking at the Christmas lights with his daughter Beatrice at Noel Christmas markets last year. The event has been binned. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Despite both events attracting thousands of people to the city, the initiatives have now been consigned to history.

The Minns government blamed budget constraints for the cancellations, noting that there was no funding in the budget to run the two events this year. That means if they were to be repeated, the government would have needed to find the extra cash.

Chef and restaurateur Luke Mangan said the cancellations were disappointing.

“The former premier supported some great out-of-the-box initiatives to get people back into the city to support our small hospitality and tourism businesses,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

“In not going ahead with these major drawcards, I fear the current government could end up being the fun police.”

The Telegraph understands that Destination NSW strongly opposed both initiatives and did not want them to be repeated. In justifying the decision last night, the government said neither Noel Sydney nor Open for Lunch were a good use of money.

American-inspired dining event - Open for Lunch, George Street Hoedownn - pictured last year.

One of the main reasons Destination NSW is believed to have opposed the two events is because they failed to attract enough people from interstate or overseas.

According to figures seen by the Telegraph, Noel Sydney attracted almost 6000 visitors from interstate, overseas, or from areas more than 50km from Sydney. Just 93 people came to the Open for Lunch event from interstate and overseas, or from over 50km out of Sydney, according to that data.

Mr Graham said the events were “important during Covid” but said they now cannot be justified.

“From a tourism point of view, these events were assessed as being about as effective as shooting taxpayer money out of a cannon,” he said.

“We won’t be funding them in their current format.”

Mr Graham would not say how much taxpayers spent on both events.