By Alex Rogerson
Grumpy’s Wood Fired Pizza has been awarded a grant from Leeds City Council’s Cultures Programme to plan and deliver a wonderful ‘urban wildlife’ themed Lantern Festival in Farsley.
The festival, which starts this month, operates under Grumpy’s ‘Farsley Community Project’ initiative and will include a series of events, workshops and community engagement; culminating at the end of the year with two spectacular parades.
The first of which will take place on 27 November as part of Farsley’s Christmas Lights Switch On.
This annual event attracts over 8,000 visitors to Farsley each year and 2024’s attendees can expect to see the likes of giant swans, hedgehogs and insects all made out of willow and paper and magically lit from within as part of Farsley’s first ever large-scale lantern parade.
A series of both adult focused and child-friendly Willow Workshops to produce the lanterns, sculptures and props for the Festival have been planned throughout the year between July and November.
Children who attend the upcoming workshops held in Scrap at Sunny Bank Mills on the 24 and 26 July will have the unique experience decorating their own fox and owl shaped light-up headdresses that can be worn during the parade. Recommended for children aged six and above, the ticketed workshops cost £5 per child. Accompanying adults and under twos can attend for free.
Grumpy’s community project is also working closely with West SILC’s post 16 department ‘Powerhouse’ who are a local SEN college based in Farsley. Both Grumpy’s and Scrap have been involved in Powerhouse’s ‘Learn to Earn’ curriculum and have been so inspired by the college and its students that they were keen to put them at the centre of the festival’s activities.
So far the students have created the illustrations for the events’ branding and have also produced a number of t-shirt designs around the theme of urban wildlife which are available to order on Grumpy’s website.
All profits raised from the designs will go towards the costs of this year’s Lantern Festival.
Grumpy’s hopes that Powerhouse’s involvement in the project will prove to have a valuable impact on the students’ sense of community while encouraging more local businesses and organisations to offer the college valuable work-based learning experiences and resources.
To sign up to a Lantern Festival workshop, or for more information about how you or your local school, business or community group can get involved too then please visit Grumpy’s website or follow their Facebook and Instagram pages.
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Please I hope non of the lanterns are not being lit and released in to the sky. This would be so bad for the environment.
The lanterns are hand held sculptures, they’re not the kind that are lit with a flame and released. The project is a celebration of sustainability, local wildlife and inclusion, so it would never be the case. We have partnered with Scrap Reuse Art Project and all materials will be biodegradable, recyclable or reused. It’s all well considered and conscious!x