Adur Sea of Lights

The Adur Sea of lights or Adur SOL as it became known as ran for six years. 

The idea for this Lantern parade was born from my looking at what I had to offer my local community. I had an Art in the Community degree where I had learned the basics of fundraising, parade structure, lantern making and community involvement. It seemed natural that I use this to not only benefit the local community but to give my children a childhood full of creativity. 

When my ex husband and I were in the initial discussions about this project we decided we had certain goals we wanted to meet. We were both acutely aware Art funding was being taken from schools. Politically a lot of divisive tactics were being used by politicians which were turning 'normal' people against each other, Lancing was a huge supporter of UKIP at that time. Lancing, (where we deliberately chose to put the parade on) was regarded as a poor area with little or no cultural events. We designed the project with these things in mind. Our initial goals were: 

1. Take artists and art materials into schools. 

We wanted to the schools any left bring in all the materials and use recycled items to make the cost of the event possible for schools that were losing funding. Leave any unused materials in schools. To give the children of Lancing an opportunity to have a massive creative event in their own town where they got to show off their amazing hard work. Brighton is just up the road and many children never got to the events put on there, we hoped as this event was on their doorstep they were more likely to be taken either by the school or by their parents.  Give the children an opportunity to meet artists and see directly how their creativity can be used to help their community. To give them an opportunity to see their community working together, to walk the streets of their village, that was portrayed as poor and unsafe place, in a safe, warm and powerfully community led way. 

2. Bring people into Lancing to help the local businesses at a point in the year when their was little tourist money. 

We deliberately chose to do a lantern parade because we could put that on at the beginning of December. Lancing has a small influx of seaside seeking tourists in the summer but the winter is very quiet. We felt that a lantern parade would bring out the Lancing residents into the local shops and possible give them an opportunity to bring in relatives and friends. As the parade ran for five years longer than was originally planned I believe the consistency gave Lancing a 'go to' event, that people could be proud of and attend. We gave local photographers, dance clubs, and other businesses free publicity and space to attend or host a Adur SOL event. We also gave references for SAHM who were volunteers and needed to get back into work. 

3. Change the reputation of Lancing's residents 

Lancing was seen by the council as a place that would only support beachfront markets and Fairs. I was told directly that no one would come to the event and was actively discouraged from putting it on. Even the police we consulted warned us off saying that Lancing was not a safe place for children to be out in at night. The first parade year I only expected me friends to turn up, at the most 20-30 people was the goal. Actually over 300 people turned up, it might have been more like 500. The event exceeded expectations from there on in and eventually over 1000 people attended from that year onward. 

4.  To put on a quality cultural event that Lancing could be proud of and utilise to politically to change the reputation of the town and pull in Families. 

The parade did this on its own. The did councils support us with small grants and people were encouraged to help but unfortunately they never saw the potential and really get behind the parade. I was the only one doing the fundraising most years and it was impossible for me to keep up the amount of volunteer work needed to keep the Parade going and I had two small autistic children. Trying to get enough finding to cover the security, road closures, materials, pay artists on the day, to run the enormously popular lantern making session held in the morning, and through out the year to make the huge lanterns and work with the kids, the help we needed from professionals, getting a stage, ACTS for the field event, the event equipment etc was impossible for me and often grants we were relying on were given to other groups. 

Thanks to the awesome people of Lancing and Adur and the dedication of the AdurSOL team this project went from strength to strength and was a rip roaring success. I will treasure the fact a child starting primary the year the first Adur SOL was put on went through their whole primary experience with this event as a mainstay. 

It truly was one of the best experiences of my life and I will treasure it forever. 

As the years went by, and given that I had two very dependant children I tried to pull away from most of my responsibilities in the parade and I think there was definitely one year where my involvement was minimal and more behind the scenes but that year I still did organising, lantern making, designing and the publicity. I was extremely blown away that the parade had such dedicated volunteers that I could do this

My roles most years were; Fundraising inc pulling in and managing local business, social media and publicity, inc designing posters, leaflets and keeping a social media presence through out the year. Making sure the event was legally safe, making event plan and making sure the child safety policies for example were up to date and happening. Vising schools and making lanterns with them. Making large parade lanterns for the most impact on the day. organising artists. Before we managed to find an amazing artist (Clare Lemmon) to take over the lantern making session on the morning of the parade I designed all the lanterns according to theme and simplified the designs so that mums could do them with their small children. I am very proud to say that in the last year we managed to work with Clare to have an 'autism hour' where parents with special needs kids could come and make lanterns quietly, in a less crowded and frenetic environment.  

 Here are some of the videos of the parade, made for the parade,

 and of the participants of the parade