The 47th annual Kendal Torchlight carnival took place on Friday 15th September; featuring 75 entries, 1400 participants, 220 volunteers and an estimated 25,000 spectators, making Kendal Torchlight one of the highlights of the local calendar. Last year saw the first ever economic impact survey of the event which showed the Torchlight weekend generates as estimated £1,535,678 to the local economy.
This year also saw the second ever Kendal Carnival Street Party which has turned Torchlight into a two day event. On Saturday 16th September Kendal town centre was taken over by a host of art and craft, street performers, bands, charity games and the live Lakeland Radio Stage.
This year’s Torchlight Carnival and Street Party could only take place thanks to the support of a series of local businesses, notably our key sponsors Kendal Caravans and The Westmorland Shopping Centre. Many thanks to all the local supporters who made sure Torchlight 2017 was such a huge success.
This year the Torchlight team reached out to local schools to decide the theme, with the chosen theme of ‘Fairy Tales’. This theme allowed imaginations to run wild and encouraged even more creativity than ever before – and this year’s floats didn’t disappoint! The colour, costumes and characters that featured made for the biggest and best Torchlight Carnival for years.
Throughout the Summer Torchlight also ran the Creative Leaders Programme in The Westmorland Shopping Centre, which featured a host of master-classes and workshops lead by international artists and carnival producers. It also provided a base for our creative team to bring Torchlight to life through fabulous sculptures and costumes; this helped create the added sparkle and vibrancy for this year’s Friday procession. Over the coming year we will be working hard to ensure local secondary schools and colleges are more involved. They are well placed to encourage their students to take advantage of this opportunity for young people to develop enterprise, creativity and practical organising skills.
Every year there is a small team of independent judges who award trophies out to the best entry in various categories. The second time the trophy presentation was conducted at the Saturday Street Party on the Lakeland Radio Stage.
The winning entry from each category is below:
- Best Young Farmers – Grayrigg Young Farmers
- Best School – Ghyllside School
- Best Carnival – Fox & Meadow
- Best Community – Dance Attik
- Best Business / Commercial – Little Rascals
- Best Music: Nelson Thomlinson Samba Band & Milnthorpe Steel Band
- Runner Up: Staveley Carnival & Vicarage Park School
- Best In Parade: St Mark’s CE Primary School
The Torchlight Organising Group is a team of local people who volunteer all year round to ensure Torchlight can take place. All the new latest news and all things Torchlight can be found on their website or Facebook Page.