{"id":617537,"date":"2025-12-07T08:15:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T08:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/617537\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T08:15:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T08:15:23","slug":"a-light-in-the-darkness-beeston-lantern-festival-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/617537\/","title":{"rendered":"A light in the darkness: Beeston Lantern Festival returns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Lantern-Festival-24-balloons.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Beeston\u2019s beloved Lantern Festival is back to brighten up the winter nights. On Friday 12 December, locations around Beeston will sparkle with thousands of twinkling lights \u2014 and everyone is invited.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s festival promises something for all ages, including: festive music and drama, a new creative competition, community awards, free hot food, real farm animals and of course the sparkle of fairy lights.<\/p>\n<p>The event begins at 4:15pm with three local gatherings at:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">St Luke\u2019s Church on Malvern Road, LS11 8PD<br \/>St Mary\u2019s Church on Town Street, LS11 8PN<br \/>Rowland Road Social Club, LS11 6ED<\/p>\n<p>Join us at these venues for christmas activities, live music, light refreshments, and real donkeys.<\/p>\n<p>At 5pm, the community will come together for a light parade from all three starting points, led by donkeys, heading to Cross Flatts Park for the main event.<\/p>\n<p>Cross Flatts Park will be transformed into a bright and sparkling wonderland, with free hot food for everyone and a gift for every child.<\/p>\n<p>The event will include a dramatic retelling of the Christmas story, a children\u2019s choir, a community gospel choir and a short Carol Service with a Salvation Army Band.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll be celebrating stars of the south Leeds community with community awards. Farm animals, illuminated den building and a creative play area will keep people of all ages entertained. The festivities will conclude at 6:30pm, leaving hearts full and spirits bright.<\/p>\n<p>This year introduces a special lantern-making competition. Individuals, families, schools, and community groups are invited to create their own lanterns and bring them to Cross Flatts Park by 5:30pm on 12 December.<\/p>\n<p>The first prize is a \u00a350 shopping voucher, with a runner up prize of \u00a320 voucher. Please note: The lantern should not have a naked flame.<\/p>\n<p>Now in its 12th year, the Lantern Festival continues to grow, bringing joy and unity to Beeston. We\u2019d love to see people from every corner of our community come together to celebrate Christmas and share light in the darkness.<\/p>\n<p>Spread the word \u2014 invite your family, friends, and neighbours.<\/p>\n<p>For more details, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/Fb.com\/LanternFestivalLS11\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Fb.com\/LanternFestivalLS11<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Lantern-Festival-SLL.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-169412\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Lantern-Festival-SLL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"599\" height=\"850\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This post was written by <strong>Alex Fleming<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We encourage anyone living or working in South Leeds to use this website to tell their news. You can either use the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.southleedslife.com\/create-article-south-leeds-life\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Create an article for South Leeds Life<\/strong><\/a> page, or email us at: <a href=\"https:\/\/southleedslife.com\/a-light-in-the-darkness-beeston-lantern-festival-returns\/mailto:info@southleedslife.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>info@southleedslife.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>While you\u2019re here, can we ask a favour?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">South Leeds Life is published by a not-for-profit social enterprise. We keep our costs as low as possible but we\u2019ve been hit by increases in the print costs for our monthly newspaper which have doubled in the last two years.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Could you help support local community news by making a one off donation, or even better taking out a supporters subscription?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Donate here, or sign up for a subscription at <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/SLLsubscribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>bit.ly\/SLLsubscribe<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beeston\u2019s beloved Lantern Festival is back to brighten up the winter nights. On Friday 12 December, locations around&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,35745,28825,393,4884,192388,1860,37875,112216,191084,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-617537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-christmas","10":"tag-cross-flatts-park","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-lantern-festival","14":"tag-leeds","15":"tag-rowland-road-wmc","16":"tag-st-lukes-church","17":"tag-st-marys-beeston","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115677294135823659","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}