Parkwood Springs Community Lantern Festival
The Parkwood Springs Community Lantern Festival will take place on Saturday 19th October 2024 from 4.30pm to 7pm, near the car park on Shirecliffe Road.
We will need help setting up beforehand, helping with activities and stewarding, and packing up at the end. If you can help please let us know at [email protected]. Lantern Procession History Every year since 2007 we’ve organised a Beacons Lantern Procession with the help of local artists and storytellers on Parkwood Springs. We provide materials and the help of a local artist so that groups of children and adults can make spectacular lanterns and parade them through the woodland on Parkwood Springs as dusk falls and the lights of the city below are illuminated. It is a fantastic sight to behold. The Beacons Lantern Procession is an event managed by the city council’s Parks and Countryside Service. You can find pictures of past lantern events on our Facebook page. We will post more information about future events here. In 2018 high winds prevented the parade, but we were still able to show off the lanterns thanks to the help of Christ Church, Pitsmoor. We were able to hold a very successful event in 2019, but the COVID-19 crisis meant that we had to cancel the 2020 event. The 2021 event was a great community lantern festival featuring lantern-making, circus skills workshops for children led by Green Top Circus, family treasure hunts, music from folk-rock band Treebeard, and finished extravagantly with a fire-juggling performance from Chris Marley of Green Top Circus. In 2022, our lantern procession showcased a fantastic array of lanterns accompanyied by excellent local food from a local social enterprise, Global Mama. Mr. Fox presented a thrilling finale to the lantern procession! You can read more about the night in Exposed Magazine's review of the lantern procession here. The 2023 lantern procession attracted over 1000 people to the event. We were particularly indebted to JG Graves Trust for their generous contribution to supporting our lantern making workshops. Following the spectacular creations lighting up the site, we had a superb fire display from some fire jugglers who closed the event! For 2024, we rebranded the lantern procession as the ‘Parkwood Springs Community Lantern Festival’. More details on the event and activities can be found above. |