People will be paying tribute to their musical heroes in this year’s Ulverston Lantern Festival.
The event’s theme is music and lantern makers will parade their creations through the town on September 20.
Ulverston will once again come alive with a River of Light that will start from four points around the town before converging on County Square to come together in a dazzling display to delight the thousands of spectators who will cram the streets.
Lantern kits, at £6, are now on sale from Appleseeds in Market Street, The Coronation Hall, Ulverston Market Hall, The Cumbria Way in Upper Brook Street, and Croftlands Launderette.
Lantern workshops will take place in the Coronation Hall on September 13 and September 14 from 2pm to 6pm and September 15 to September 19 from 5.30pm to 8.30pm, when absolute beginners and skilled lantern builders can come together to bring their ideas to light!
Lanterns chair Chris Nelson said: “Our theme of music is designed to appeal to everyone and has huge scope for our fantastic lanterneers.
“We are looking forward to wonderful selection of lanterns inspired by people’s favourite songs, bands, albums, artists, classical works, TV and film themes, or instruments.
“There could be everything from Stravinsky’s Firebird, or Holst’s Planets to a Yellow Submarine or an LED Zeppelin, the Beatles to Bowie, or even Elton John’s grand piano. Why not Pink Floyd’s iconic triangle, Taylor Swift’s glitzy guitar, an Oasis Wonderwall, Jean Paul Gautier’s cone bodice for Madonna, or Bob The Builder? Whatever anyone’s music taste, there will be an image to reflect it.”
Four processions will start at different points around the town from 7pm onwards on Saturday September 20, and come together in County Square outside the Coronation Hall around 8pm.
They will create a River of Light winding through the streets up to Ford Park for a big firework finale starting around 9pm.
Ulverston town centre will be closed to traffic between 7pm and 10pm.
The ban means no vehicles except emergency services can move while the roads are subject to official closures. Cars parked in the town cannot leave until the streets reopen.
The lantern festival is self-funding and appreciates the support of Broughton-based education specialists CGP Books, Ulverston Town Council and the Town Land Trust, Westmorland and Furness Council and Travis Perkins.
However, the biggest proportion of the £12,000 needed to run the event each year comes from sales of lantern kits and the money collected from spectators on the night itself to ensure the continuation of Cumbria’s biggest night of free sparkling entertainment.
The event also relies heavily on volunteers to step up and help organise the procession and keep everyone safe, so the small group of organisers are hoping for an influx of new people to help run the festival.
Chris added: “If we are going to keep the lantern festival alive for future generations we need new volunteers. It is just 3 hours on a Saturday night, but every extra person we recruit helps to ensure that that festival survives and prospers and remains a feature of Ulverston for everyone to enjoy.
“We also hope people will generously support the event on the night; just £1 from each spectator will ensure we can run the event again next year. Supporters can also donate money via Crowdfunder and scan the link on posters and publicity leaflets.”
