City of Lights

Truro's midwinter lantern festival

Key Role: Steward

Location: Truro

Date: November, 2015

Background

City of Lights Festival is an annual community event that involves a procession of handmade lanterns, made by both professional artists and local schools. There are also street performances from dance groups, samba bands and marching bands, as well as the switch on of the Truro Christmas lights. The event is the largest Christmas lights switch on outside of London, which means it needs a lot of preparation and crowd control. It's ran by a non-profit Community Interest Company and relies heavily on public donations and volunteers to help out.

Roles and Responsibilities

For this event I had the role of a steward, and was given a section of the procession to accompany and oversee. All stewards were given a hand held radio to keep in contact with the control team, updating them with the position of each section to ensure the procession ran smoothly and also if any problems occurred, such as a lantern catching fire. I also had the task of making sure the public stayed safely behind the barriers at all times.

Skills Acquired

Crowd control: making sure the public stayed safely behind the barriers
Communication: keeping contact with the rest of the team via hand held radios
Time management: keeping the procession on schedule for the event to run smoothly
Knowledge of event logistics: having a behind the scenes look at how the event was organised and ran
Fire safety: getting briefed on what to do if a lantern catches fire

Photo Credits: City of Lights 2015