Derry City and Strabane District Council's Business and Culture Committee has approved a series of strategic proposals aimed at enhancing the experience for the 2026 Halloween celebrations.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the event—widely recognised as the largest Halloween festival in Europe—and organisers are preparing for what is expected to be the most significant edition in its history.

To commemorate the four-decade milestone, officials are exploring the creation of a permanent high-impact mural within the Walled City to serve as a year-round tourism asset. Additionally, plans are underway to commission a large-scale animation to serve as a centrepiece for the 2026 programme.

With the festival now attracting approximately 120,000 attendees annually, the Council is prioritising safety and visitor movement. A pilot ticketing system has been proposed for the "Awakening the Walls" trail specifically within the upper Walled City, covering Artillery Street, Pump Street, Bishop Street, Society Street, and Upper Magazine Street.

The system is designed to prevent the dangerous congestion and long queues experienced in recent years by providing visitors with dedicated time slots. While the wider city centre will remain free and open to all, a small fee of £2 per person or £5 per family is being considered for the ticketed zone to cover the £70,000 required for enhanced stewarding and infrastructure. Aeidin McCarter, Head of Culture at the Council, emphasised that the priority is a safe, high-quality event: "We have ambitious and exciting plans to develop a comprehensive programme to create an enhanced visitor experience and make our 40th anniversary celebrations the most successful in the history of the festival.

"A key element to those plans is a proposal to refine the Awakening the Walls experience so that it showcases all of the Walled City and allows us to manage the high evening footfall and pinch points along the trail.

"We are therefore proposing a ticketing system for an area of the Walled City that will alleviate crowd congestion by giving people a specific time slot to experience the installations and entertainment fully."

The festival remains a vital economic engine for the North West. In 2025, hotel occupancy reached 96% during the event, and international media coverage reached over 111 million viewers in the US alone.

To meet the rising costs of infrastructure and safety, as well as the expectations for a grander 40th-anniversary programme, a further £200,000 investment via rates support has been proposed.

Ms McCarter clarified the nature of the proposed entry fees: "The wider city centre programme would remain a non-ticketed area with free flowing open access and programming content for everyone to enjoy on all these streets.

"A small fee for individuals or families to access that section of the walls would be to cover the associated service and crowd control costs associated with the ticketing system to that area."

Council officers will now move forward with developing the ticketing framework, with a detailed follow-up report to be presented to the committee in the near future.