Elfingrove has been cancelled a day after tickets went on sale for the Glasgow Christmas attraction.
The festive event had been due to return to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum from 26 November until 13 December following a three-year break.
Glasgow-based organiser Itison had announced a £2 million investment in a completely redesigned version of Elfingrove, with tickets going on sale at 7.30am on Wednesday (16 September).
The company confirmed on Thursday that the event will no longer go ahead, saying early ticket demand had been lower than required to justify the financial risk involved in staging the show.
Itison said thousands of tickets had been bought during the first day of sales, but that the overall level of demand was still below expectations.
Organisers said: “We’ve worked incredibly hard over the last few years to create and launch something we believed would be special, and thousands of you bought tickets in the first day. Thank you – we genuinely appreciate the support.
“Putting on major events of this scale is a huge financial risk and sadly the level of early demand is below what we need to confidently take the event forward. As a small independent business rooted right here in Glasgow, we have to be practical as well as ambitious.
“In light of this, we’ve made what has been an incredibly tough decision for us all.”
Everyone who has bought tickets will receive an automatic full refund, with Itison saying its team will begin processing payments within 24 hours.
The company added that the decision does not affect its other events.
It said: “We’re hugely disappointed and very sorry to everyone who was looking forward to coming. Thank you for backing the idea and for all the lovely comments over the last few weeks.”
The cancellation comes days after details of the revamped Elfingrove were revealed. The 2026 event was designed around an immersive projection show inside Kelvingrove.
Plans included 24 projectors creating images across an 8K canvas, with projections stretching 22.8 metres up the walls of the museum’s Centre Hall and across an area of 2,755 square metres.
Visitors were to follow a Christmas story taking them through Glasgow’s past, present and future, accompanied by a cinematic soundtrack through individual headphones. An outdoor Christmas Village was also planned with light installations, street food, marshmallow toasting and a miniature land train.
Elfingrove was launched in 2019 and Itison says more than 400,000 people have attended versions of the event since then.
The attraction last took place in 2022. Plans for 2023 were abandoned after organisers said inflation and “skyrocketing prices” throughout the supply chain would have forced substantial increases in ticket prices.
Anyone with questions about the cancellation has been advised to contact Itison through the dedicated Elfingrove email address.