A one-of-a-kind willow train lantern will make its way through Trenance Valley as part of this year’s lantern parade.

The steam train lantern will be parading under the viaduct as part of the Newquay Lantern procession and Trenance Cottages Lights Switch on event, which will be held on Friday, November 21 from 5.30pm.

Blystra Arts, who deliver all the creative activity related to the parade, has been working with the community making five willow train carriages, each one depicting a different era, story or character related to Newquay Railway station.

Carriages have been created and decorated alongside, Your Art Connect, Age UK, Newquay MIND, Treviglas Academy and the community in sessions which happened in September, October and which are still running in November.

The willow steam train has come about after Blystra Arts linked the lantern parade with another of its 2025 projects Stories from the Station, a heritage project running in 2025 to coincide with the 200-year anniversary of the first passenger steam train journey which happened on the September 27, 1825.

The willow train will pass under the viaduct, which was completed in 1849 by Joseph Trefry, to transport minerals from central Cornwall to Newquay Harbour to then be transported to the rest of the country and the British Empire.

There will be other big lanterns to see on the night, with Newquay Tretherras and Treviglas Academy also set to make lanterns to contribute to the parade and each of the primary school children also parading smaller more traditional lanterns too.

Blystra Arts is visiting almost all of the Newquay schools to deliver their annual lantern making workshops ahead of the annual Newquay Lantern Parade.

The annual free community lantern making workshop will be held at Newquay’s WI Hall, on Crantock Street on Saturday, November 15 from 10.30am to 3.30pm.

The Trenance Cottages switch on event will happen between 6.30pm and 6.45pm.

The façade of the heritage cottages will be lit up alongside the Christmas tree as well as the gardens including the foot bridge over the stream, which will be followed by entertainment from crooner Andy Marshall.

Food will be available from The Garden Café so families can make an evening of it, staying on at the café and cottages to enjoy the entertainment.

Mark Warren, the manager of Newquay BID, said: “The new home of the Lantern Parade event is down in Trenance Valley, and much the same as last year will be linked in with the Trenance Cottages Light Switch-On event happening on the same night.

“The lanterns will process from 6pm through Trenance Valley to the cottages, with viewing points in both Trenance Gardens and the Boating Lake.

“The Newquay Lantern Parade and creative activity in 2025, has once again been made possible with support from Experience Newquay, Coodes Solicitors and Newquay BID. Experience Newquay is a Cornwall Council funded project which is part-funded by the UK Government through the Shared Prosperity Fund. This is the second year that Coodes Solicitors have sponsored the lantern activities and parade, and they are the main business sponsor of the 2025 event too.”