A NEW West Belfast park is to be transformed into a Winter Wonderland for a special Christmas event.

Páirc Nua Chollann on the Stewartstown Road will host a free festive event on Thursday  from 6-9pm, organised by Colin Neighbourhood Partnership with support from Belfast City Council.

Families can enjoy a visit to Santa’s Grotto and there will be fairground attractions, musical performances and a Christmas Variety Market with stalls from local traders.

Councillor Ross McMullan, Chair of the council’s People and Communities Committee, said: “We’re delighted to support this fantastic festive event with Colin Neighbourhood Partnership in one of our newly opened parks and community events spaces in the city. 

“We hope it will bring along local residents as well as attract visitors from across Belfast to see and enjoy the park for the first time – making the most of the early festivities too.

“It’s also good to see parks’ events and activities like this taking place in our parks and open spaces again, following the last few years.”

John Paul Russell, Arts and Cultural Officer with the Colin Neighbourhood Partnership, added: “It’s fantastic to see this new park with its state-of-the-art facilities open in Colin. This is such an exciting new development for the Colin area. It will allow us to host our biggest Christmas event to date and we look forward to using it for future events.”

Páirc Nua Chollann, opened in October and is located on the Stewartstown Road between Poleglass and Twinbrook.

Among its attractions are a 13-metre ‘Leap of Faith’ sculpture, a new play park with range of accessible and sensory equipment, a cycle ‘pump track’, marked routes for walking, running and cycling and an outdoor gym.