There is a big buzz around the 2020 Ulverston Lantern Festival, which will be a virtual celebration this year. Read the statement from the Ulverston Lantern Festival team below.
There’s big buzz around this year’s virtual Ulverston Lantern Festival and the theme of ‘Birds & Bugs’ in the shape of giant bee that has landed in the Market Hall where lantern-making kits are now on sale.
The bee is hanging around in the Visitor Information Point in the Market Hall, where it was welcomed by festival committee member Helen Shacklady who runs the BookShack stall.
There will be no crowd-pleasing procession in 2020 because of Covid-19 restrictions but lantern-makers are being encouraged to create their own ‘Birds & Bugs’, send the committee photos of their lanterns and display them outside their homes on the Friday and Saturday evenings during the weekend of September 19th.
Helen explains: “So many people in Ulverston and visitors to the town love the festival and making the lanterns each year. We are constantly amazed by the creativity shown by the lantern-makers, and their creations will be on show in a virtual parade of pictures on our web site ulverstonlanternfestival.org and on our Facebook page. Covid-19 rules out the procession, but we want to keep alive the creative flame that makes the festival so unique and enjoyable.”
Kits are also on sale for £5 each, from Appleseeds on Market Street and contain willow withies, paper, glue, wire, masking tape and candles – everything needed to make a lantern. The virtual festival theme ‘Birds & Bugs’ offers scope for a huge variety of creations from caterpillars, ants, flies and beetles to butterflies, dragon flies and ladybirds, and from sparrows, robins and ospreys, to gulls, gannets and golden eagles.
There are also plans for making some larger lanterns that can be displayed around the town to publicise the event. The kits for the 2020 Festival are contained in stylish and eco-friendly paper bags donated by Lindal-based Wax Lyrical – the UK’s largest home fragrance company, which designs and manufactures products including candles and reed diffusers.
Everyone making a lantern is being asked to send photos or videos of the lantern-making and the finished lanterns to festival team chair Chris Nelson at chris@trafalgar-pr.co.uk.
He explained: “Ulverston Lantern Festival is the biggest event of its kind in Europe. We want the Festival back stronger than ever in 2021 when we hope that the worst of the virus will be behind us. In the meantime, we would urge everyone to check the website, Facebook page and local press for updates.”
