Christmas markets coming back to Sydney’s CBD

It will begin to look a lot more like Christmas in Sydney, with Premier Chris Minns vowing to bring back annual Christmas markets.

Christmas markets will come back to Sydney’s CBD, with Premier Chris Minns conceding the government should do more to mark a holiday “millions of people in NSW” celebrate.

The backflip comes two years after Treasurer Daniel Mookhey scrapped the Noel Sydney Christmas festival championed by former Premier Dominic Perrottet.

Mr Minns conceded that he was going to un-cancel Christmas in an interview with The Daily Telegraph to mark the halfway mark of his government’s term next Tuesday.

The Premier said annual Christmas markets would be a “a good event to be pursuing” in order to address “an equity issue around religious festivals”.

“We do contribute to, on the multiculturalism banner, celebrating major religious festivals; I celebrate Easter and Christmas, and so do millions of people in NSW,” he said. “Taking money out of Christmas (celebrations) would not, I don’t think, be consistent with the money that we put into other major religious festivals.”

Cousins Grace Brown, 3, and Maryrose Brown, 3, were among some 200,000 people who enjoyed the Noel Sydney Christmas Festival in 2022. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Cultural and religious festivals on which taxpayers’ money is spent include the annual Lakemba Nights festival during Ramadan, Lunar New Year celebrations, the Greek Festival, and others.

The Noel Sydney festival was part of a suite of events created by the former premier to inject life into the CBD over summer and help Sydneysiders celebrate the festive season.

Former premier Dominic Perrottet, with daughter Beatrice, championed the Noel Sydney Christmas markets in 2022. Picture: Jonathan Ng

More than 200,000 people attended the Noel Sydney event the first and only time it was held, in 2022, according to event organisers.

Attendances were similar to the first year of the Vivid festival, in 2009.

However, Labor canned the festival in 2023 after government bean-counters deemed it was not good value for money.

The Telegraph understands that new Tourism Minister Steve Kamper was in favour of bringing back the Christmas markets scrapped by his predecessor.

Premier Chris Minns says he’ll bring Christmas markets back to Sydney. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

At the time, then-tourism minister John Graham said the event was “as effective as shooting taxpayer money out of a cannon” when it came to attracting interstate and overseas visitors.

Mr Perrottet’s signature Open For Lunch event, which closed parts of the CBD and Parramatta for a massive daytime festival of food and entertainment, was scrapped at the same time.

The Telegraph understands that Destination NSW strongly opposed both initiatives and did not want them to be repeated.

Mr Minns said he would not revive the “long lunch”.

While Mr Minns has committed to bringing Christmas markets back into the city, The Telegraph understands the festival will be different to that created by the former government.

Originally published as Christmas markets coming back to Sydney’s CBD