Lord Mayor Michael Pye helped Burngreave to add a bit of sparkle and shine to a dark, cold November with the first ever Burngreave Carnival of Lights.
Cllr Pye kick started the fun by switching on the brand new fairy lights decorating the trees on Ellesmere Green. They will be on throughout the winter months to help brighten up the area.
In keeping with the widely diverse population of Burngreave, the Carnival of Lights was a multicultural celebration to honour the ‘light’ during the dark winter months. It also falls near to the festivities for Divali, Eid and Christmas.
This was the third event of the Festival's Project which has seen Burngreave New Deal for Communities and the Burngreave Area Panel provide £30,000 to Green City Action to organise four celebrations in Burngreave – one in each season of the year.
Extra funding was also secured for this event from South Yorkshire Community Foundation and Awards for All.
Much hard work has gone into the Carnival of Lights even before the actual event. Free lantern making and carnival costume workshops were conducted so that residents could take part in the carnival costume procession of lanterns and luminous objects.
They lit up the evening accompanied by the ‘Rhythms for Resistance’ samba band. Illuminated shops and stalls sold multicultural foods and crafts and world music played as local DJ's, street dancers, stilt walkers and fire jugglers set the night ablaze.
Panni Poh Yoke Loh, from Green City Action, said: “This was a fantastic event that celebrates everything good about Burngreave. It gave us an extra bit of sparkle in the winter months and we now hope it will become an annual event.”
John Clark, Chief Executive of BNDfC, said: “We were delighted to support the Burngreave Carnival of Lights. It is especially nice to have something specially organised at this time of year which the whole community can get involved in and enjoy.”
Cllr Jackie Drayton and Chair of the Burngreave Area Panel, said: “This was another great opportunity for the people of Burngreave to get together and show the rest of Sheffield what a beautiful place Burngreave is. The entertainment and the children's parade were great and I really enjoyed buying things from the stalls and local shops. It was a lovely to see people come along and enjoy themselves.”
The first event of the Festival's Project was the hugely successful Abbeyfield Festival in the summer which won the Cohesion Award at the inaugural New Deal for Communities Achievement awards. The second was the autumn Wensley Estate Festival and a fourth is planned for the spring in another green space within Burngreave.