The Real Cornish Online Magazine - Cornish Story

EventsGwav Winter 2010Gwav Winter 2010Eventsthe event?LP. The City of Lights is a non-profit makingpartnership incorporated as a CIC (CommunityInterest Company) in 2009. It's led by a voluntaryteam of freelance practitioners and representativesfrom The Works Dance & Theatre Cornwall,Kernow Education Arts Partnership, Truro Schoolof Samba, Cornwall Music Service, Totally TruroBusiness Improvement District, Truro City Council,Event Cornwall and Devon & Cornwall Police.Therefore, the success of City of Lights is very muchdetermined by community support, benefactors andvolunteers. Again, for us on the marketing side ofthings there is much planning and scheduling to beconsidered, which is constantly being altered andupdated which means we have to continuously bethinking on our feet and working closely with allother teams of people working together to makeCity of lights a fantastic night that everyone willenjoy and remember.CS. How can people get involved and support theevent in the future?LP. Well the event relies heavily on donations, allof which are greatly appreciated. There will bedonation boxes on the night. Additionally there aremany volunteering opportunities on the evening,such as steward, collector and surveyor positionswhich Event Cornwall search for each year a coupleof months before the event. The West Briton havealso been fantastic in supporting City of Lights,supplying photographers when we need them andpromoting the event as much as they can, so wewould really like to thank them for that. We havealso been working on our social media pages, soyou can find us on Facebook under Truro City ofLights and support us there, letting us know whatyou think of the event this year and in the years tocome.Eight Wire has been a marketing and design agencyfor six years, specialising in website design, eventmanagement, print advertising, logo and graphicdesign. They work closely with you and yourcompany to provide the most appropriate marketingstrategies to meet your needs.Each lantern is designed and created by hand, bymany different people. Some are made by localprimary schools and the larger lanterns are createdby students at University College Falmouth. I caughtup with Jason Clevely, course leader of BA HonsContemporary Crafts, and his students at the designcentre, Tremough campus.The design centre is a hub of activity when I arrive,with students gluing tissue on the floor, paper andwicker limbs hanging in every direction and peoplecontorted in all directions holding together massivecreations. There is, however, a great sense of calmabout the place. Everyone is working quietly andefficiently together as a team.As I watch in amazement at these creations beingput together, I am greeted by Jason who begins totell me how this scene before my eyes came to be.Jason tells me that the students have only beengiven the brief for this year’s City Of Lights festival,Myths and Legends, the previous week, leavingthem a little over two weeks to go through thedesign and construction processes. This is the fifthyear that University College Falmouth have beeninvolved in the making of the lanterns for the event,one they relish being involved with.“The speed of the making is important. Thesecreations do not have to last long, they aretransient, but this means team work is essential.The students work in groups of approximately sixor seven and they all take the task very seriously,applying constant professionalism to their designsand construction of the work, as well as the processof taking their design from 2D to 3D, a challengingtask.” Jason tells me.“City of Lights gives these students the opportunityto not only get involved with a local, and longstanding event, it also provides them with a chanceto show off their work and ability, celebrating thefact that they have the ability to achieve work likethis.”“The students involved also get the chance todevelop their professional practice and teachingskills through this event, as they go out to localprimary schools to assist the pupils in the making oftheir lanterns for the event.”Every year the students are allocated by City ofLights, a chief artist to help advice the them in theirdesigns, in addition to the construction, practicalityand health and safety elements of the lanterns andthe parade, for example, the lanterns can be nomore than seventeen foot high so as not to hit lightsand cables on the parade route. Chris Nixon is thesaid artist. “I act as enabler to advise the students,especially on the practicalities of their designs. Ihave been involved with City of Lights for nine yearsnow, so I know a lot about the event and how theseyoung artist’s designs will have to consider theparade route and health and safety.”“It is great working with other artists, which ispartly why I enjoy assisting here for this event, Ican teach them, but they are also teaching me. Itis important to remember that this event and thelantern creations is all about theatricality and howthe lanterns interact with the audience.”As I walk round the fantastic facility that isTremough design centre, I marvel at the Pied Piperof Hamlin towering into the sky, the Jabberwocky,scattered across the floor in several pieces, BabaYaga, a character from a Russian folk story (whoeats children, I may add) having layers of tissue andglue added to her, and The Kraken, a mythical Squid,dancing in the air. Having the opportunity to seethese creations in production, really gives you anappreciation of the sheer amount of work and effortthat goes into the making of them, and how theymagnificently add to the essence of a spectacularnight.There was a chill in the air on this crisp Novembernight, but the rain held out and the mesmerisingarray of lanterns and dancers paraded through thebustling streets of Truro to the ‘ohs’ and ‘ahs’ of thecrowd. Spectacular lanterns of dragons, griffins,and even Elvis (well, he is a legend!) danced theirway along the parade route to Boscawen Streetwhere the Truro Christmas lights were turned on.The parade continued to lemon Quay to the soundof steel drums, whistles and even the bagpipes - amagical way to welcome the festive season.66 Cornish Story MagazineCornish Story Magazine 67