Cancelled winter festival parade back on

Penrith's Winter Droving was cancelled last month due to high winds

An annual winter festival parade called off last month on safety grounds is back on set to go ahead.

Penrith's Winter Droving was cancelled less than 24 hours before it was due to take place in October because forecasts of high winds in Cumbria led to fears temporary structures could fail.

But it has been announced the parade portion of the festival will now take place on 22 November as part of Discover Penrith's Christmas lights switch on.

The parade is a torch-lit procession watched for free by tens of thousands of people in the town.

Festival director Adrian Lochhead told BBC Radio Cumbria he has been working with Penrith BID and Discover Penrith since the cancellation to see if they could find a way to hold the event.

"We've always managed to do something, even during COVID," he said.

He said organisers lost a lot of money because of the cancellation, having to refund traders and settle payments for things that could not be used.

"We want to maintain a good relationship with everyone, so we've been going through that process over the last two or three weeks," Mr Lochhead said.

After announcing the news on Tuesday, Mr Lochhead said: "Hundreds of people wanted to join in with it, which is great isn't it?

"I'm really pleased that we were able to do this."