Photo credit: West End Brewery
The closure of West End Brewery will not mean the end of our beloved Riverbank Display, with a series of upgrade works taking place to ensure the attraction becomes a permanent feature of Adelaide’s Christmas calendar.
The beloved city fixture, which normally runs from late November until New Year’s Eve, features riverbank displays with some classic favourites including the Jack-In-The-Box, Vulcan, Moby Dick, the Ferris wheel, Wizard of Oz and the Nativity Inn. The event also hosts a variety of stands selling food and drinks, plus a few carnival amusements for kids such as a merry-go-round and laughing clowns that take over the Thebarton site.
West End has been working with the City of West Torrens to ensure the 62-year-old tradition – held on the Riverbank alongside the old brewery will continue to delight families for years to come.
Lion, the owner of Adelaide’s West End Brewery, has now reached a formal in-principle agreement with the Council whereby Lion will invest $100,000 in permanent fixtures for larger display items and infrastructure to keep major parts of the display in place all year round, reducing set up and maintenance costs, and to assist in future upgrades of the display.
In addition, Lion will make a further $100,000 contribution to support the staging of the event in 2022, with the City of West Torrens Council to become custodians of the display from next year.
Tim Moffat, Sponsorship and Events Leader for West End, said these investments are geared towards assisting with the transition of ownership of the lights display to council from 2022 onwards.
“We know how important the Riverbank Display is for South Australians, with more than 100,000 people visiting the lights every year”, said Moffat.
“While the brewery stopped production in June, West End will ensure the display runs again this year, in a COVID-safe way.”
“This year, we’ll also work with Council to make any of the fixtures permanent as without the brewery behind it, it will be difficult to store and set up some of the larger decorations in future.”
“While West End is no longer being brewed on Port Road, we’re a big part of the South Australian community and we’d like to think people will always lovingly refer to the display as the ‘brewery lights’.”
City of West Torrens Mayor Michael Coxon said the Council was committed to ensuring the tradition continues for years to come.
“This began as a clean-up project for the staff at the brewery back in 1959, when members of the operations team decided to enhance the gardens with some festive cheer, starting with Santa and his sleigh,” he said.
“It has grown over time with dozens of display items and attractions for families. We’re proud that such an iconic event is held each year within the West Torrens area and we’re even prouder that Council will be its custodian going forward.”
Mayor Coxon added that Council was also committed to the future of the Brewery Garden, which holds heritage significance, as the City of West Torrens intended to take on responsibility as landowner.
After last year’s cancellations due to COVID-19, the 2021 Christmas Lights Display has been adapted to ensure it will be bigger and better than ever.
The event will have a shortened duration due to COVID restrictions and, to ensure patron’s health and safety, guests will need to pre-book their free tickets for one of the four available 60-minute time slots each night of the display.
There will be 500 free tickets available for each hour-long timeslot, with a total of 2,000 tickets available per night.
This announcement comes after the displays were cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19, and after South Australia’s West End Brewery announced its closure in June, 2021.
The 2021 Christmas Lights Display will be open from Monday 13th of December until Christmas Day inclusive.
Ticket reservations will become available from 12:30pm today and can be booked here.
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