Organisers of Truro’s City of Lights celebrations need the help of the Cornish community to find a home for the amazing Rhino lantern that took part in this year’s parade on 16^th November, which has been described by those who attended as “the best yet”. The 25,000 strong crowd were amazed by the wonderful withy and tissue lanterns that represented wildlife from around the globe.

 Some of the lanterns have already found homes at Lander Gallery and Truro Arts Company so do pop along to have closer look!  

But sadly, the Rhino lantern is homeless this Christmas!

Designer and creator of the lantern is local artist Clare Summerson .

 “I loved making the Rhino lantern for City of Lights. The animal’s imposing and solid frame was ideal subject matter for a lantern.  It’s hard to believe these beautiful, powerful and engaging creatures are endangered. This is one of the reasons for choosing to make a Rhino for the theme of wildlife from around the world!”

Claire adds “It would be great if he could find a home in somewhere in Cornwall, he has such a friendly demeanour with a bit of mischievous glint in his eye. It would be shame to see him dismantled.”

Each year the artists and City of Lights team are faced with the issue of finding suitable homes for some of the wonderful lanterns. Believe it or not Elvis from the 2010 parade is also homeless! If we don’t find a new home for these original pieces of art then they will unfortunately have to be taken apart. If you would be interested in proving news homes for either of these lanterns please contact Liz Wright at The Work on 01872 261770 or Liz@dtcworks.co.uk

If you can’t take home a Rhino then maybe you would like to take home a little piece of this magical event in the form of the City of Lights 2012 Calendar!

 A perfect local Christmas gift for friends and family, this beautiful calendar contains images from the last few years of City of Lights, capturing the magic of this amazing community event. Price £6 each plus £1 P&P per order, Available from KEAP (please contact Helen Reynolds at KEAP on 01872 275187 or helen.reynolds@keap.org.uk) or Truro Tourist Information Centre, priced at £6 each. There are a very limited number of these, so you will need to move quickly! All proceeds go towards next year’s City of Lights.

City of Lights organisers would like to thank the wonderful crowd that attended this year’s event and to all those who have donated to help keep this spectacular community events alive. If you didn’t manage to get your spare change in to the collection buckets on the night then you can continue your support through Vodafone just text giving campaign - You can make donations of up to £10 by texting COLT11 followed by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 to 70070 to make your donation. It doesn’t matter which network provider you are with, the text message is free and all of the donations will be passed straight to City of Lights and will help us continue to deliver this November spectacular. Alternatively, pop into the Tourist Information Centre on Boscawen Street where there is a collection box for your loose change.