LEICESTER’S famous Diwali celebrations are to be combined into one annual event, as the city council aims to cope with rising costs.
This year’s celebrations will focus on Diwali Day itself – on Thursday 31 October – with an evening of activities and entertainment on Belgrave Road and Cossington Street.
There will not be a separate public event marking the switch-on of the city’s Diwali lights this year, but the Golden Mile will be illuminated with 6,000 decorative lights as usual.
Leicester City Council is combining the events due to the rising costs of providing event and traffic management, security, and associated infrastructure on two separate days. These costs have escalated from £189,000 in 2018 to almost £250,000 last year.
The council has worked with Leicester Hindu Festival Council (LHFC) for many years to put on the Diwali events. Members of the LHFC and community representatives were first consulted about the proposed changes last summer. It was hoped that a community-based fundraising committee could be established to explore alternative sources of funding or sponsorship, but this has been unsuccessful.
Cllr Vi Dempster, assistant city mayor for culture, said: “We’re really proud of our Diwali celebrations in Leicester and we want Diwali to continue to thrive as part of our annual events calendar.
“However, the rising cost of providing activities on two separate days is now entirely unsustainable. We are facing unprecedented pressures on our budgets and the only way we could have continued with two events is to find other ways of securing the substantial funding needed. Unfortunately, that’s not happened.
“Therefore, following consultation with a number of stakeholders, including the LHFC and Belgrave Business Association, it has been agreed that we will focus on one event, which will be Diwali Day.
“We will of course continue to ensure that the Golden Mile is illuminated with thousands of lamps throughout the festival of Diwali. And we’re still expecting to welcome tens of thousands of visitors to join us for the celebration.”
Cllr Manjula Sood, assistant city mayor responsible for community cohesion, said: “Looking forwards we want to involve more people, especially young people and volunteers – who give so much time every year – in the development of our Diwali Day programme.
“We also want to work closely with the wealth of South Asian arts organisations and businesses we have in Leicester to help us to grow and find other sources of funding for this important celebration.”
Full details of the Diwali Day event on Thursday 31 October will be announced in the coming weeks.