Lantern walk lights up Hurley Park on rainy Saturday
Published 12:00 am Saturday, December 16, 2023
Families, students and art enthusiasts gathered at Hurley Park on Saturday to join in the Winter Lantern Walk. All lanterns featured in the event were handmade.
M&K Trolley Espresso provided the refreshments for the events out of a working trolley.
The Lantern Walk utilized most of the walking trails in Hurley Park before ending near the pond at the corner of Lake Drive and Annandale Drive.
Participants line up on the Hurley Park deck, located near the intersection of Lake Drive and Annandale Avenue, before the walk begins.
SALISBURY — Saturday’s rain lifted just in time for Waterwork Visual Art Center’s second annual Winter Lantern Walk to make its way through Hurley Park just after dusk.
The event included live music, a trolley providing refreshments and the headliner, people of all ages walking through the park holding up their handmade lanterns. Some of the shapes that lit up the park that night included whales, stars, jellyfish, rabbits and even a large Christmas tree.
Around 50 people attended the first iteration of the event, said Diana Cummings, the membership and outreach coordinator for Waterworks. Despite the rain and overall dreary weather, Cummings said that this year’s event drew a crowd of approximately 100 people.
Last year’s version was held in Bell Tower Green Park, but the event was moved to Hurley Park in the museum’s bid to continue to improve the event year after year.
“We decided on Hurley because we liked the ambience, meandering paths and we thought it would be charming with the natural elements in the park,” said Cummings.
In addition to the lanterns being carried by the participants, many more lanterns were hung throughout the park. Those lanterns were made by students involved in art clubs throughout various schools in Rowan County as well as people who participated in Waterworks’ lantern making workshops but were unable to make it to the event Saturday night, according to Executive Director Anne Scott Clement.
Multiple workshops were held in the weeks leading up to the walk where the only cost was for the materials the attendees would use. This included a paper-lantern workshop earlier on Saturday that Cummings said sold out of materials.
Live music was provided for the event by Alex Day, the music teacher at West Rowan Elementary School, and a few of his students. Refreshments were provided by M&K Trolley Espresso, a company that provides coffee and other drinks from the windows of a working trolley car.
Cummings also made sure to give credit to the Hurley Park Advisory Committee and the park’s staff, who helped bring the event to life on Saturday and even helped set up the lanterns throughout the park.
