THE Halloween Lantern Parade in Sefton Park will not go ahead this year - after becoming a victim of its own success.
This year's event, on October 31, would have seen the carnival celebrate its 10th anniversary. In its place, The Liverpool Lantern Company has announced a similar event, expanded over three days over the spring half term 2016. It will also move out of the park to new location, as yet unspecified, and, for the first time, faces being ticketed to the public.
The carnival, which in the past has been free to enter, recieves support and funding from Liverpool City Council’s Culture Liverpool and Arts Council England.
However the one-night event, which started life as an intimate parade for families, attracted a record 15,000 people to the park in 2014. Organisers say the overwhelming numbers led to safety concerns, in turn, throwing up infrastructure issues which would require additional funds to address.
Jo Pocock, artistic director of the Lantern Company, said: “Every year presents new artistic challenges and as the audience has increased year on year we feel the time is right to make some changes, in order to stay true to the spirit of the event and retain the intimacy and magic of the Lantern Festival for our family-based audience.
“The challenge is that as the event and audience grows, it requires added infrastructure to keep it running safely.
Crowd funding
“This year we have so far been unable to raise the wider funding needed via sponsorship, so we are making a little more time for some new sponsors to step forward.
“We are also launching a crowd funding campaign, and although the event needs to be ticketed there will be a free entry to our community participants."
The Lantern Company, which has been commissioned to design large scale events in Hong Kong and in Chester, says it hopes the event will move back to Halloween in 2016, effectively giving the city two carnivals in one year.
Jackie Swanson, project director, said: "It is our intention to build on this event and bring Halloween Lantern Carnival back to its usual October date next year. In fact, we would like to see this extend to a week long activity across locations in the Liverpool City region in 2016."
She added: “The popular lantern-making workshops will remain at the heart of the event, taking place throughout February and during the spring half term."
Assistant Mayor and Cabinet Member for Culture, Tourism and Events Councillor Wendy Simon commented: “We were disappointed when we were first informed about Liverpool Lantern Company’s difficult decision for the event not to go ahead this year, but we support their creative vision.
“The prospect of a three-night event opens up new artistic possibilities, and we look forward to finding out more about the look and feel of the 2016 festival.”
