The Christmas Lantern Festival is returning on Sunday 12 December and is taking to the streets of Beeston and Holbeck bringing light and joy across the community.
Rather than drawing everyone together in Cross Flatts Park, this year the Lantern Festival is once again going ‘On Tour’, with an open top bus, covered in lights and carrying a Salvation Army Band winding its way through the streets.
The theme for this year is ‘Following the Star’ and on the route there will be several stops where people can gather together for refreshments, live performances, activities for all ages, including an interactive piece of artwork, and the chance to sing some favourite carols led by the Salvation Army band.
The full route, starting at The Holbeck and stopping at St Mary’s Church, Rowland Road WMC, St Luke’s Church and Cross Flatts Park, can be found in the graphic and further details and timings can be found on social media at fb.com/LanternFestivalLS11. We would love you to come and join us at one of the stops – have a cup of tea and a mince pie, a good sing and hopefully lots of fun.
If that is not possible for you, then come and see the bus as it meanders through the streets – wave and shout, catch some of the goodies as they’re thrown from the bus and sing along to the music.
And, if you can’t make it outside, or you’re not on the route, then don’t worry, you can watch the whole event as it is livestreamed on Facebook at fb.com/LanternFestivalLS11 with your feet up in front of the fire.
And, if all that wasn’t enough, there are exciting opportunities to get involved in the event, before the day:
Community Superstars
Do you know of someone who is a Community Superstar? Someone who always goes the extra mile, who loves endlessly and gives freely of themselves for others in the community. This is your chance to nominate that person for one of our Superstar Christmas Hampers. To nominate someone email us at Beestonlanternfestival@gmail.com saying who you would like to nominate and why you think they should receive a hamper. We’ll then choose the winners and deliver the hampers on the day of the festival.
Stars of Hope
In the run up to the day of the festival, we will be sending out thousands of small wooden stars to schools, places of worship, community groups and to families across the community.
We’d love you to decorate your star and then to write on the back your hopes and dreams – for our community, for your family and for yourself. Then, you have a choice: you can either bring the star down to one of our bus stops where we will add them to a larger piece of artwork which will be displayed following the festival; or you can keep your star and use it to decorate your own home.
We will be making a print of the artwork following the festival and will gladly give a copy of the print to anyone who would like it. If you would like stars either for yourself or for a group, simply head to the Facebook page and request them there or email Beestonlanternfestival@gmail.com.
We hope you can join us in this exciting celebration of Christmas across our community.
This post was written by Mark Hodgkinson
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