Preparations are well underway for the fourth Gravesham Festival of Light which will take place on Friday October 14 through Gravesend Town Centre between 6.30pm and 7pm. The parade will involve 13 schools from Gravesham who will be working with renowned arts company Samesky in the build up to the event. In total over 400 young pupils will benefit from arts workshops. The children will make lanterns and torches which they will carry in the parade which will be led by the Bloco Fogo Samba Group and Cultural Beats.

The Festival of Light has been organised by local arts organisation Cohesion Plus in partnership with Kent Equality Cohesion Council with the support of Gravesham Borough Council and Kent County Council.

The parade will start up outside the Saint George’s Centre entrance opposite the Tesco store, and will then make its way via New Road and Windmill Street to the Community Square outside the Civic Centre. The festival will climax with a free concert by one of Europe’s leading Michael Jackson tribute acts Navi starting at just after 7pm.

The aim of the Festival of Light is to bring the communities of Gravesham together through the arts, and has been inspired by the Cultural Olympiad which promotes the Olympic values of excellence, respect and friendship and the Paralympics values of empower, achieve and inspire.

According to Gurvinder Sandher the Director of the Kent Equality Cohesion Council who is co-ordinating the event “We have been very pleased with the positive response which we have had from local schools. I believe that the Festival of Light is an excellent example of how the arts can be used to bring communities from across the borough both rural and urban together. I am also very pleased that we have secured Navi who is a well renowned Michael Jackson Tribute Act who I am sure will thrill the crowds at the climax of the festival.”