Released On 20th Nov 2017
President’s Heartbeat - w/c 20th November 2017
On Saturday 18th November, I donned my hi-viz jacket and eagerly joined the small team of volunteers escorting the children’s Lantern Parade around Yeovil town centre. Since its 2013 debut, participation in this home-grown event has seen steady growth, along with the numbers of people who come into the town centre to see the parade, and make use of the opening night of evening shopping in the run up to Christmas. The Lantern Parade, delivered by SSDC, Yeovil Town Council and Love Yeovil, showcases the creative talents of our local schoolchildren, with the town centre Christmas lights switch-on ceremony as the grand finale. The button is fittingly, pressed by the winner of a children’s competition to design a Christmas light, with their winning design as the centrepiece of the switch-on ceremony. The legacy of this concept will be a growing collection of Christmas lights, all designed by Yeovil schoolchildren. I’m awaiting feedback from town centre retailers on footfall in the town centre, but from where I was stood next to the Bandstand, when the lights went on, I think the last time we had crowds this big in Yeovil was for VE day!
