This weekend was one of our favourite times of year at SMP HQ…it’s the sparkliest event of the season and the beginning of all that glorious Christmassy community spirit. Yep, you guessed it…Enfield’s annual “Parade of Light”.
This year it was even bigger and better than usual with the added bonus of a new and exciting “Winter Wonderland” in our very own Enfield Town. We had such a great time performing lots of numbers from our panto “Sleeping Beauty” and we drew quite a crowd too…all while our team were preparing our float to take part in the parade that evening.
This year our float was all about our forthcoming production of “Sleeping Beauty” and what a triumph it was! A huge sparkly castle flat held up our bright pink banner & sparkly material adorned all angles of our truck, while head lamps & rope lights, twinkly lights and disco balls all helped to make us visible to the onlookers, but the pièce de résistance has to be our “floaters”, our principle cast that waved their way around the pretty route of Enfield Town on the back of our magical float… the beautiful Princess Aurora herself, accompanied by her dashing Prince Rupert, and The wicked Fairy Malevolent who was matched in magic power only by our three fantastic good Fairies…Flora, Fauna and Merriweather. The brave weather-bearing crowds cheered and waved as they recognised our unforgettable characters and booed at our baddy Malevolent as she threatened to cast a spell with her magical glowing orb. The kids loved our free Sleeping Beauty stickers too, they went down a treat. Needless to say we were all beaming with pride and Christmas spirit as we landed back at the starting point outside the Civic Centre.
A lot of hard graft goes into these fabulous community events by the fabulous Kathy Worrall and all the organisers, and of course within each group that takes part too, lots of hours, sweat and standing in the cold, but it is all totally worth it to see the smile on the crowds faces as their favourite characters roll past, and the sparkly lights of the parade light up this wonderful town we all hold so dear.
We even made it into the local paper – here
Holidays really are coming…
You can book your tickets for Sleeping Beauty here
The whole parade can be seen here: