Our Lantern Parade has a theme of community safety and we want to: Create a series of arts workshops and fun community consultation events that allow the local community to have a say in what they feel makes Whitmore Reans Safe and what doesn't, and to design and make a range of lanterns from natural and recycled resources. Allow storytellers and artists to create an interactive story and lanterns that reflect the communities thoughts which will be performed at Gatis Community Space before the parade sets off. To take back the streets from unsociable behavior by parading around a set route with lanterns and singing. To share cultural stories and food around the camp fire upon return to Gatis.

What we'll deliver:

• Two community workshops exploring local area and the negatives
• Four community arts workshops for creating and making lanterns
• One large scale community arts event - lantern parade

Why it's a great idea:

We live in an area of great diversity with many different cultures all living beside each other. Modern life is full and we tend to stick to our own celebrations and religious and cultural celebrations. We believe that to bring community together we need to find ways of looking past cultural differences and creating something new to celebrate together. This is why we have created the idea of #LOVETHEREANS we all live here so lets find ways of celebrating and perhaps we can even spread our ideas out across the city. We are already working with The Hub at Ashmore Park to help them create their own Lantern Parade - why not make it a city wide celebration of cultural diversity working together to take back pride in where they live.

Steps to get it done:

• Securing funding elsewhere for material items needed for project
• Engaging a further local artist to help deliver project

Our aim is to work and develop this idea city wide but we need to work out what works and what doesn't first - we have already held two lantern parades both with different ideas and different ways of presenting ideas back to the community. We have learnt a lot and feel now is the time to really push the idea. We really want to reach out across the city and work with local artists, story tellers and creatives to build something unique for Wolverhampton.