Stars will light up Church Street this winter as part of Stoke Newington Business Association’s final initiative of the year.
Credit: Kate Revere
School children will create the stars during lantern-building workshops, along with free public classes on 19 and 26 November, led by local art collective, Output Arts.
The lanterns will be paraded along Church Street on 3 December where children will show off their stars and local businesses will serve free food and drink. One child from each school will then help to turn on the Christmas lights while being counted in by Mayor of Hackney, Philip Glanville.
Co-chair of the association, Kate Revere, explained the thought process behind the scheme.
“Our Stokey stars will be chosen by their school for doing something special or achieving something great,” she said. “We think it’s much nicer than a celebrity doing it.”
“It will be really magical!”
Vice Chair, Karen Sims added that the purpose of the project, ‘Constellations’, was to reflect the “amazing sense of community”.
“There’s this fantastic vibe in Stoke Newington where people feel like they’re part of a really diverse and creative community,” she said.
“This group of traders are amazingly cohesive and supportive of each other,” Karen added. “When Sainsbury’s tried to put a shop here, people went bananas!”
Kate Revere echoed this sentiment.
“The struggle is real, especially at the moment with the cost-of-living crisis,” she said. “Everyone wants the other businesses to thrive.”
“Stay away from Amazon and come and support your local independents this Christmas!”
The Stoke Newington Business Association has run several projects this year thanks to a £50,000 grant it won from Hackney Council in January. Kate is hoping the group will soon be self-sufficient and that they can “self-fund all these projects next year”.
But for now, Kate is urging locals to get involved with the parade on 3 December.
