We all love lantern procession and we all know it is run as a not-for -profit community event, funded entirely by ticket sales and donations on the street. Each year around 50 lantern procession fairies & elves work a combined 330 hours to bring you this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs7ksPt1k_Y . That's over 8 weeks of full time work! If they got paid at minimum wage that would be £2475. The procession is always free to watch and we fund the event by selling the fireworks tickets,

with all the costs (fireworks, materials, insurance etc) that would mean tickets should be £11.50 each – no child concession! But they all give their time, every year for FREE to keep the cost as low as possible! Aren’t they amazing? Some of them don’t even get to see the event because they are too busy.

So…

This year we would not only like to say thank you to all these amazing volunteers,

..but we would also like to give them a well deserved year off and perhaps a glass of something warm, spicy and good for the soul!

What? Wait! But we love the lanterns I hear you cry!

We know, we know…

..here is the suggestion…

A completely free event - A magical lantern garden, a massive thank you (and possibly some hot, spiced apple/mulled wine) to our volunteers and a chance for everyone to see something lovely. Because it will be free, we will need your help to raise £1231 to pay for artists and materials, there will be school workshops too and we might even get a story teller and some big lantern puppets if we go over our target. We are not aiming to get fireworks this year, there were a few free events locally for fireworks last year – so lovers of big bangs and whizz-pops should still be able to get their fix.

The target represents the 1231 likes the Lantern Procession Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MachLanterns/ page has, so you could donate as little as £1. The more we raise however the more c̶o̶m̶p̶l̶i̶c̶a̶t̶e̶d̶ fabulous it can become! Donate now to show your appreciation to all the stewards and organisers and let’s make something lovely for everyone in 2017 before bringing back the procession you all love again in 2018.