More than 500 star lanterns made of paper and willow will feature in this year’s festival

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The coastal town of Dover is set to glow this winter as hundreds of lanterns, giant puppets, and illuminated artworks light up the streets for Dover’s Winter Lantern Festival (DWLF) 2025 - a free, family celebration of community, creativity, and conservation.

Now in its fifth year, DWLF has become one of the UK’s most distinctive winter festivals. Organised by social enterprise, Future Foundry and Dover Town Council, it unites local artists, organisations and residents in a stunning night-time spectacle that celebrates Dover’s culture, heritage, and environment.

A Celebration of Renewal, Community and Creativity

At 5.30pm on Saturday 6 December from Pencester Gardens, hundreds of hand-made lanterns will illuminate the streets as local families, school pupils and volunteers parade through Dover to the sound of drums, including Dover’s new homegrown Samba band. The day of festivities begins in Market Square (10am - 3pm) with live music, crafts, circus workshops and an artisan market, before continuing in Pencester Gardens (3pm - 7:30pm) with street food, DJs, dance, and a vibrant youth market.

Future Foundry’s mission to empower young people and nurture creative leaders has helped spark a wave of positive change in Dover. The town has embraced a distinctive model of collaboration - one that unites artists, residents, and organisations in collective action - and it’s working.

From the award-winning Dover in Bloom project, which won three top prizes at the RHS South East in Bloom Awards 2025, to landmark events like the Winter Lantern Parade, Dover’s community-driven approach is reshaping its cultural identity and inspiring pride in the town’s creativity and collective spirit.

Up to 20 schools, colleges, community groups, plus members of the public will create more than 500 star lanterns made of paper and willow for this year’s festival.

New Giant Wildlife Puppets Tell a Story of Hope

At the heart of this year’s spectacle are a series of breathtaking giant wildlife lanterns, commissioned by Dover Town Council and designed and built by Future Foundry’s trained team of Dover-based artists Rainna Erbas, Jessica Martindale and Amelia Johnson, in collaboration with Lisa Oulton and master puppeteer, James Frost.

The lanterns represent recently returned creatures to Dover’s unique coastal and chalkland landscapes - the Tawny Owl, Greater Mouse-Eared Bat, Dover Twist Moth and Woodcock - thanks to the extraordinary efforts of local conservation organisations.