A local arts group will be lighting up a Stoke-on-Trent park for their winter puppet and lantern parade. 

The Winter Gathering, organised by Urban Wilderness CIC, will take place in Queen's Park, Longton on Saturday 13 November from 4pm to 6pm. 

A parade of giant puppets and hand-made lanterns will be carried through the park by around 100 members of the arts group and the local community. 

There will be live entertainment at the free event, such as a performance from Domesday Morris with fire torches, music from Danny Shaw's marching band, KiLNE and the event will end with a fire show by The Prometheans. 

There will be live entertainment at the event including a fire show (image via Urban Wilderness)

The giant lantern puppets, which will be featured in the parade, were created by Urban Wilderness with the support of Thingamajig Theatre, while young people and volunteers from the community made the rest of the lanterns. 

Community volunteers have been meeting weekly to make lanterns, masks and costumes for the event. 

Urban Wilderness have been running community volunteer workshops for adults currently out of work or unable to work for around three years. 

Isla Telford, co-director of Urban Wilderness CIC, said: "It's a really wide age range of adults who are coming up and we have had the busiest sessions we've ever had. 

"There's been a real buzz and everybody is really excited." 

The parade will be led by marching band KiLNE (image via Urban Wilderness)

They have also run workshops with young carers and carried out outreach projects with Florence MacWilliams Co-op Academy in Meir. 

The parade will tell the story of the Greek myth of Ariadne and the Minotaur. 

The story will be told using large minotaur and eagle lantern puppets inspired by the imagery on Longton Town Hall. 

Isla added: "We do community building through creative interventions, and our vision is to empower communities and build connections for people as they work together during the workshops to tell new stories about Stoke. 

"The story we are telling in the parade is about what happens when you take charge of your own destiny and shrug off the narratives you are given, and I think that is a metaphor for Stoke. 

"It is easy to walk through and think it feels empty and unloved, but the amount of passion and pride that people have for their communities and for each other is really overwhelming." 

The event will feature a performance from Domesday Morris (image via Urban Wilderness)

The parade will mark the finale in a busy year of Centenary events for the arts company. 

Urban Wilderness CIC organised the annual Pig Walk Parade in April and recently took over the former Barclays building in Longton to turn it into a creative hub. 

This marks the second year that the company has run the Winter Gathering event and hopes to carry on the tradition in future years. 

The Winter Gathering will take place at Queen's Park Longton on Saturday 13 November from 4pm to 6pm. 

Find out more about the event on the Urban Wilderness CIC website here.