Finding a new way to shine a light
Maidenhead: Lantern Parade becomes a trail this December
Norden Farm Centre for the Arts is gearing up for it’s Lantern Trail which launches this Saturday.
For more than 10 years, Norden Farm has thrown light onto Maidenhead High Street with the annual community Lantern Parade every December.
Thousands of people participate in the lantern-making workshop and parade each year.
With communities unable to gather safely in 2020, the parade has been replaced with a trail around the town.
Working with visual artists Same Sky, Norden Farm has created ten brightly coloured lanterns to light up the art centre and the town and the theme is ‘Carnival of the Animals’.
They will be hung in shop units including the zero-waste shop Filling Good in the Nicholsons Centre and elsewhere in the town centre, including at Rio Deli in the library.
Residents are encouraged to have a photo taken with each lantern they find, then send the snaps to Norden Farm to be entered into a prize
draw for tickets to The Gingerbread Man in February.
“The Lantern Parade has always brought people together physically – that is the nature of the event,” said Norden Farm’s education manager Robyn Bunyan.
“But what has always been more powerful is the affect the lanterns, music and spirit of the event has on everyone it engages with.
“There is no getting away from the darkness of 2020, but I hope that we, Norden Farm, can
brighten the long evenings.
“The Lantern Trail will breath life into the High Street and remind the community that the arts are here to support them through the uncertainly ahead.”
As part of the project, Norden Farm is also running its usual Lantern Making Workshops – this time all online.
Lantern-making kits can be purchased and collected up to Friday, December 11, so that families can enjoy creating lanterns at home.
Each kit includes access to a video workshop, a printed step-by-step guide plus all the required materials for lantern-making, including willow withes, wet strength tissue and PVA glue.
Participants can become part of a virtual parade by sharing photos of their lanterns on social media with the hashtag #LanternTrail2020.
For a chance to be in the prize draw, send photos of discovered lanterns to farmout@nordenfarm.org