Lantern Parade

Upon This Rock – Lantern Parade for Peterborough Arts Festival – ‘Upon This Rock’ will be a celebration of Peterborough and its people, and a visual and musical feast. Spectacular lantern parades peopled by hundreds of local schoolchildren and their families will start in four corners of the city and converge on Cathedral Square, filling the city centre with light, colour and sound.

The event will feature at its heart a performance of a specially commissioned score by composer Jonathan Baker, and will feature a number of residents of Peterborough, using music and song to tell their own stories about how they and their families came to call the city ‘home’. Taking its inspiration from the idea of ‘home’ and from the city’s history of migration, dating back through the housing schemes of the 1960’s and as far back as the celebrated bronze-age boats, the performance will embody the lives and journeys – great and small – that have led people to settle in Peterborough.

An impressive production team has been put together including artistic director Emma Bernard (Street Wise Opera, Royal Opera House, Opera North), composer Jon Baker (The Voice Project) and nationally renowned Liverpool Lantern Company. Four local visual artists are also being supported with bursaries to undertake training and work experience, delivering alongside the Lantern Company in schools and community workshops.

Parades start at 7pm from:
• Shamrock Park (top of Broadway)
• Peterborough Museum (Priestgate)
• Chauffeurs Cottage (St Peters Rd)
• Culminating performance: Cathedral Square