Okehampton Lanterns is back for 2024 – and we’re excited to announce that the procession will be led by our brand new Street Band.
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After a break this year, Okehampton Lanterns makes a welcome return to the town in February, following generous support from Okehampton United Charities and South West Water’s Neighbourhood Fund.
The good news means it’s all systems go for our project to create a new street band for the event and we’re now looking for people to join the band, which will largely comprise brass and woodwind instruments and percussion but is also open to any instrument that can be played on the streets. Players will need to have a good level of confidence on their instruments.
We’ll be launching our street band workshops in October and hope to make a debut appearance at Okehampton Carnival on 21 October. Rehearsals are at Ebenezer Hall, Okehampton, on the following dates:
- Wednesday 4 October – 7pm–8:30pm
- Wednesday 11 October – 7pm-8:30pm
- Wednesday 16 October – 7pm-8:30pm
- Saturday 21 October – 2:30pm-4pm
The band is led by our multi-talented professional musician, Jon Dyer: “We want to hear from you if you’d like to be part of the band, it’s going to be great fun,” said Jon.
“We’ll be working with traditional folk music and adapting it for a street band set-up and also looking at street band traditions from around the world.”
In the new year, we’ll be holding lantern-making workshops for all the family during February half-term (Monday 12 – Friday 16 February), and local groups can also get in touch with us if they’d like us to help them create lanterns. The main location for the workshops will be Wren’s building at Ebenezer Hall, North Street.
The provisional date for Okehampton Lanterns is Saturday 24 February. The procession makes its way to Simmons Park, where the lanterns are displayed in a tableau. Our Creative Director Marilyn Tucker said: “It’s a lovely community event, with music and dance, and creating all these wonderful lanterns is an opportunity to bring all the generations together.”
Contact us if you want more information about the street band and lantern workshops on 01837 53754 or by email at [email protected]
