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ENTERTAINMENT
Morley Lantern Festival Returns
By Jack Pearson Thursday 30th October saw the return of the Morley Town Lantern Festival. The event was attended by children from inside and outside the local area, with their very own creative pumpkin designs and adorned in fancy dress, lighting up the heart of Morley.
Morley celebrated its 10th yearly anniversary
of the Lantern Festival, with the biggest turn out of participants in the events history. The festival encouraged young children to be creative and produce their own quirky pumpkin lantern, which was then entered into a competition with prizes awarded to the best three designs; the prize award was then followed by a fancy dress disco for all the children to enjoy. Previous years have been very successful with an astounding 200 pumpkins lighting up the festival all strategically placed on the chessboard located outside the Town Hall side entrance. Due to the great spectacle of this year’s event, organisers are forecasting a significant rise in the number of participants and spectators in 2015. This continued success has helped improve the image of Morley, providing great entertainment for the youngsters who never leave the event disappointed with more and more children turning out each year. The origination of the Morley Festival began with nothing more than a trick or treat disco unfortunately there were only limited spaces available, this left many children disheartened as they couldn’t gain access. However, following an entertainment committee meeting between Morley council members, it was decided that future events would cater for all the youngsters from whom the formation of the Morley Lantern Festival was agreed. The Founder of the Morley Lantern Festival was former Mayor Joyce Sanders, who is still heavily involved with Morley council assisting current mayor, Mrs Wyn Kidger. Joyce still plays her part in the organising of the annual event and described this years Morley Lantern as “absolutely brilliant” saying that over the years she has seen some incredibly brilliant quirky carved pumpkins: “There are some really good ones and some of the children do not want to leave the pumpkins (laughs) they’re going to be there, no ones going to pinch them, they’ll be fine. They do spend some time on these pumpkins and its great seeing everybody getting involved”. The historical town of Morley is certainly a place to be. The different events provided by the committee for the town’s residents also includes the big Christmas Light switch-on, that like the Lantern Festival is another occasion for all the family to enjoy, seeing Morley lit up once again. Morley’s Mayor, Mrs Wyn Kidger is at the heart of the Morley revolution, working tirelessly she thrives to make Morley a town people can be proud of and a visitor’s attraction, ensuring families and children enjoy their visit and the events that are held.
‘Electric, The children love it, absolutely love it’
FirstNews
ISSUE 560
1 - 7 NOVEMBER 2014
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What is the purpose of organising the Morley Lantern Festival?
It’s something that’s been going ten years and its to bring young people into the town. We are not celebrating Halloween, it is the actual lanterns and to be competitive with the pumpkins and putting on the free disco to give the young people of Morley the chance to enjoy themselves and celebrate the festival.
Wyn Kidger - Morley Mayor
From the previous years are there any pumpkin designs that stand out to you? Erm, last year we had some lanterns for the Olympics, and it would be interesting to see a Tour De France theme. But you get quite a varied range from superheroes and to even once we had a carving of the Morley Town Hall, although it does vary from year to year. But we have to be careful judging because really it’s about the children but we do know it’s the parents that will have done the carving
Would you say that the Morley Lantern is a great occasion for the family?
Oh definitely, you get the whole families coming and even the grandparents coming along, its definitely a great occasion for the family and that’s what we aim for.
Do you normally get children coming from different schools around the area?
Yes I get the job and have done for the past god knows how many years of delivering flyers to schools, including Newlands, Seven Hills and Fountain. We just do the schools in the Morley council area and they are delivered to schools packed in 30 for the teachers to give out in classes and we usually advertise it in the Morley Observer and put banners up outside the town hall.
Where do you see this event in five years time?
Bigger, still located in the town hall obviously. But we are hoping, outside the town hall, to do what we call a hub, which would be a covered in area, to spread it out onto the precinct itself, so yes to have more children come in.
How would you describe the atmosphere on the night?
Electric! The children love it, absolutely love it. You could definitely do with earphones (laughs) because it is loud. But yes the children really do love it.
What do you hope for in preparation to the night?
I hope that the children enjoy themselves, and the families. We get so many comments from people at the end of the night ‘Thank you very much it’s a fantastic do’. Even the people, who moan and groan about Morley the rest of the time, will come to the Lantern Festival and say good things about it. It’s all about the recognition, and that’s what it’s starting to get. The Fancy dress disco was a fantastic feature to complete the event, with 80% of the children attending dressed up also accompanied by family members. The disco commenced within the Town Hall once all the pumpkins had been entered and displayed in readiness for the judging to begin. The disco was ‘electric’ just as the mayor had described in the interview. The children swarmed to the front of the stage to where the DJ was located. The DJ entertained the children by playing games such as musical statues, and dividing the room in half to half ‘sing off ’. Once the entertainment came to an end, the DJ and Wyn announced the winners of the pumpkin competition, with the winners being presented their prizes on the stage where they were photographed with their pumpkins.