Spirit of Bradford

The wonderful lantern puppet pictured above, part of the Cecil Green Arts collection, is a new creation called 'The Spirit of Bradford'. She has many of Bradford's iconic buildings painted around her skirt, including the City Hall and the Alhambra theatre. The puppets appear to be constructed with a wire frame covered in silk. This one stands a good twelve feet tall, by my estimate. They have an operator inside and the hands of this puppet are controlled by two other people.

There were others in the parade too: an angel, a boar (Bradford's symbol) on a bicycle, an owl, a huge heart and one or two other large figures. They look mysterious and beautiful, brightly lit from inside and appearing to glide along the ground.

Lantern Parade

The Cecil Green Arts collective of artist, puppeteers, musicians and circus performers held a Lantern Parade in Bradford's Lister Park in the schools' half term week, as part of the 'Museums at Night' initiative. They brought their huge illuminated puppets and many children were there with their handmade creations, made at lantern-making workshops during the week.

Music was provided by the Peace Artistes and a drumming group, so there was plenty of encouragement to get moving, on what was quite a chilly evening. 

There were also a couple of circus artists performing fire spinning routines. I wasn't sure what settings I needed on my camera to capture that. A tripod wasn't practical in the dark, with so many people around, but I quite like the effect of movement that I captured.