The diverse communities of Gravesham came out to support the return of the Gravesham Festival of Christmas Lights on Friday 19th November. The event has not taken place since 2019 due to the pandemic and was delivered by Kent Equality Cohesion Council in partnership with Cohesion Plus and Gravesham Borough Council.

The event proved to be one of the biggest to date as entertainment started in the town centre with pop up performances taking place across the High Street, Windmill Street, New Road and Community Square getting people into the Christmas spirit.

Civic guests included The Mayor of Gravesham, Councillor Lyn Milner, Deputy Lord Lieutenant Bhargawa Vasudaven and local Councillors and representatives from various faith and community organisations who led the parade which included 13 local schools.

Gurvinder Sandher the CEO of Kent Equality Cohesion Council commented “It was a delight to see the communities of Gravesham come out and celebrate together again after such a long time. The whole ethos of our work is to promote unity, community cohesion, tolerance and shared British values and we are proud that this longstanding and popular event provides the platform to do this. Christmas is a special time for everyone regardless of faith, whether you celebrate or not. We are incredibly grateful to our partners for their continued support and we are proud that the Gravesham Festival of Lights was such a huge success given its absence last year.”