Farsley Lantern Festival: Urban Wildlife and Environments
Grumpy’s Leeds Ltd has been awarded a grant from Leeds City Council’s Culture Programmes to plan and deliver a fantastic Lantern Festival - with a series of events, workshops and community engagement culminating towards the end of 2024 with two spectacular lantern parades.
The first parade will take place on 27th November as part of Farsley 2024’s Lights’ Switch On. Following which, the lanterns will also be paraded at Farsley’s Food Drive - a public event when the community donates supplies for our local Food Bank from their doorsteps in December.
The project will operate under Grumpy’s ‘Farsley Community Project’ umbrella and work closely with West SILC Powerhouse, a local SEN college, with the aim of promoting inclusion and awareness of the school’s need for regular and meaningful access to the community whilst demonstrating the value the students can bring to similar projects and work places.
A series of workshops to produce the lanterns, sculptures and props for the Festival have been planned throughout the year between July and November, these will include both public pre-booked workshops and private sessions with the students at Powerhouse.
The project is also a collaboration with Scrap Creative Reuse Project to promote sustainable practices, materials and awareness within the community.
The festival will have the theme of Urban Wildlife and Environments and all designs and creativity will represent and champion this topic.
We will also rally to increase participation in the two Parades via local schools, businesses and community group involvement all under the same theme.
We intend that this year’s funded project will be followed by annual Farsley Lantern Festivals; we hope that working with professional artists throughout 2024 will provide us with an opportunity to develop the cultural impact of both the Lights’ Switch On and Food Drive events whilst gaining the relevant experience and public interest needed for the project to self-sustain in years to come!