Floods cause cancellation of Inverness Halloween event

The Highland Council has today (Tuesday 28 October 2014) regrettably had to completely cancel its Halloween event at Ness Islands, Inverness.

The event was initially due to take place on Thursday 30 and Friday 31 October. Yesterday, the Council announced that due to rising water levels on the Ness Islands, the Thursday event had to be cancelled.

Today, the situation at Ness Islands has worsened with increasing water levels and Friday’s event has also been cancelled for public safety.

Inverness Events Manager Gerry Reynolds said: “There has been quite a lot of localized flooding in the Inverness Area overnight and Ness Islands has been badly affected with all the performance areas and the majority of the paths now underwater. Water is now pouring on to Ness Islands directly from the River Ness as predicted by the Met Office’s flood warning; and we have had to admit that we have been beaten by the weather. There simply isn’t anything that we can do to make this happen safely.

“We appreciate just how disappointing this news is going to be for all the families who really look forward to visiting our Halloween show; as well, of course, as all the wonderful performers, projectionists and set builders who have been preparing for months to amaze us all. Everybody involved in the Halloween Show is desperate to reschedule so we would ask everybody who has made their children a scary costume to hang on to them. We cannot confirm anything at the moment, but we are really determined to see if we can turn this disappointing cancellation into a postponement.”

The Halloween events were the first in series of events marking Inverness Winter Festival 2014, further details of which are at: http://www.invernessfestivals.com/

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