23/12/2021

Many of Cardiff's Christmas attractions will close at end of play on Christmas Eve following Welsh Government's announcement that Wales is moving to Alert Level 2.

Winter Wonderland attractions at City Hall, St John's Street and the castle; St David's Hall, the New Theatre and Cardiff Museum will all close.

A spokesperson for Cardiff Council said: "Clearly with the rise of Omicron what's important is that we do all that we can to keep people safe and to help slow transmission of the virus. Following the First Minister's announcement on Wednesday, Cardiff Castle will close at 8pm on Christmas Eve in line with the ice rink and the ice trail. The castle will remain closed over the Christmas and New Year period and then throughout January for essential maintenance works.

"The Cardiff Museum will also close on Christmas Eve and remain closed throughout January, as will St David's Hall. We will look to reschedule performances where possible for St David's Hall, and St David's box office will be in touch with customers who bought tickets before the closures about options moving forward including shows that are affected in January.

"The New Theatre will close after the final performance on Christmas Eve until January 16^th. HQ Theatres, which runs the New Theatre, will take any decision on reopening from that date based on Welsh Government advice and restrictions at that time. HQ will also be contacting customers about their ticket options for any missed shows."

Closing times for all Winter Wonderland attractions across the city centre are set for 8pm on Christmas Eve. The city's Christmas market will close then too.All Winter Wonderland tickets (including booking fees) for sessions after 8pm, December 24, that have been purchased online or by telephone with Ticketsource, will be automatically refunded to the original payment method, and you do not need to contact Ticketsource/the venue to initiate this. Refunds can take up to 10 working days to show in your account, and this may be affected by the Christmas bank holidays. For any tickets purchased through other methods, please contact the event organiser directly.

NoFit State Circus will continue with the planned run of Lexicon in the Big Top in Sophia Gardens until January 15^th, but have reduced the audience capacity for all performances after December 26th to comply with the new Welsh Government regulations.All performances after December 26th will be socially distanced.

As a result of the newly-reduced audience capacity NoFit will be contacting some of the most recent bookers to explain that they will no longer be able to see the performance of their choice and will offer them either tickets to an alternative performance or a refund. If you don't hear from NoFit then your tickets are secure and you can visit the Big Top in the normal way.

There were no plans for any public outdoor events on New Year's Eve in Cardiff this year.