Lantern characters parade to light up town

Hundreds of lantern characters are set to be paraded through Ashbourne for a Christmas celebration.

Willow and paper lanterns have been turned into characters including jellyfish, gingerbread men, mice and a dragon for the Ashbourne Christmas Lantern Spectacular.

A total of 300 characters will be part of the procession, which is due to set off from St Oswald's Church at 18:30 GMT on Friday.

Steve McQueen, a director at Ashbourne Arts, one of the organisations behind the parade, said Ashbourne was "a small town with a big tradition".

New lanterns are made each year for the procession, while the rest are stored and reused when they can be.

Mr McQueen said they started creating the lanterns in October with the help of schoolchildren, scout troops and army trainees.

The procession is set to arrive at the Christmas tree in the market place after 19:00, where there will be a Christmas carol event around the tree.

Road closures will be in place along the route from as early as 17:00 and may continue until 20:30.

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