CALLINGTON is getting all fired up for its wonderful winter festival.
Kelliwik Golowi aims to bring light, warmth and creativity to the darker months. With fire dancing, music around town and a lantern parade, last year’s debut event was a great success, and local people are much looking forward to the 2024 festival.
This year lanterns and costumes will take a silver and gold theme, and organisers will be visiting local primary schools to help children create their lanterns.
Kelliwik Golowi is set to take place on Saturday November 30, and in the meantime local people of all ages are being encouraged to take part in free, family-friendly dance workshops to get ready for the parade.
Sessions will be held at The Vault on Fore Street on Saturdays November 16 and 30 from 2pm to 4pm, led by Scoots Kernow and with music from the Kelliwik Golowi band.
Meanwhile on Saturday, November 23, come along to the Bull’s Head from 8pm for some lighthearted festival fun. A mock mayor is needed for the parade and candidates nominated by local clubs and groups will be putting forward their election ‘policies’ to a jury selected on the night. The funnier and more bizarre the election pledges are, the more likely they are to win! Organisers say they’re positively encouraging bribery, as it’s all in aid of a good cause: the Callington Youth Project Group (CYPG) building fund.
As darkness falls on the Saturday, November 30, people will be invited to step into a world of wonder as music, dance and drumming brings the night time streets alive.
Performances will include the Jilly Belly Dancers, Cornish Dancers, Morris Dancing, the Moondance Studio and the Kelliwik Golowi Band.
Spectacular fire eating displays will be a highlight of the event. Young people from the town have also been learning circus fire skills to perform, during workshops funded by CYPG with Queenie and the Jester.
The festival’s focus will be a torchlit, fancy dress parade through the main streets of Callington, made up of individuals, local groups and organisations, ending in displays in St Mary’s Square.
Kelliwik Golowi translates from Cornish to ‘Lighting up Callington’, and was inspired, says founder Sarah Slocombe, by visiting the Montol winter festival in Penzance.
The practice of lighting fires, dressing in costume, playing music and dancing around the time of the midsummer and midwinter points of the year is a tradition going back many centuries, marking the changing seasons. These customs have seen a recent resurgence in Cornwall. With Tansys Golowan on Kit Hill already established as Callington’s midsummer event, Kelliwik Golowi, now in its second year, is set to become a new tradition to bring warmth and cheer to the darker months.
