Lantern Procession Lights Up Wednesbury

What an amazing turnout to the We Are Wednesbury Lantern Procession this Saturday! Over 100 people joined us in walking along Market Place and Union Street to light up the town on a cold and windy November evening as part of the Wednesbury Christmas Lights Switch on. Read on to find out what happened at the event.

Lantern Procession Participant

In the afternoon Sam Hale and Karl Lewis and their team, who ran the lantern workshops throughout Autumn, added bamboo sticks to the lanterns to make them easier to carry.

Next, all the groups gathered at Wesley Church hall to collect their lanterns and practice holding on tight.

Lantern Procession Participant

We were joined by The Place of Welcome Craft Group, Friar Park Youth Club, Wednesbury Museum Community Art Group, 617 Sandwell Air Scouts, The Way to Wellbeing group, The Crafternoon Group, the Knights of Wednesbury, Wednesbury Rainbows, Guides and Brownies, The Wednesbury Police and Ideal for All. We had lots of support from our lovely stewards.

Some had designed and crafted small lanterns by themselves and others had made large lanterns as a group. We turned the lights off in the hall to see the lanterns in all their glory before we set off.

The brilliant Bostin’ Brass Band and the Helter Skelter stilt walkers headed the procession.

We passed lots of lovely stall holders and shops and had a bit of a dance a the end of Union Street.

We ended the walk at Market Place just before the Christmas Lights Switch on by none other than Mike North (Gary Windass) from Coronation Street!

Before this took place we were running a lantern making workshop at Market Place.

Thanks to everyone who took part, our stewards, the We Are Wednesbury working group, Karl Lewis and Sam hale, the lantern Makers and John Steventon at The Wesley Centre.

If you attended the event or were part of the lantern procession we'd love your feedback. Fill in this form to be entered into a Prize draw to win £50 of vouchers.

The We Are Wednesbury Lantern Procession is supported by the We Are Wednesbury Cultural Programme that is being delivered by Multistory and community partners through the High Street Heritage Action Zone initiative. We are grateful for funding by Sandwell Council and Historic England.

Images: Phillip Parnell Photography and David Rowan