I have been dreaming about this for a number of years, I was inspired by the fresh expressions team in Scarborough when they lit lanterns on the beach as an act of remembrance for loved ones. It has taken the beachcomberFX team a while but we eventually committed to making it happen this year. We didn’t want to just use the same idea, we decided to link it with remembrance weekend, the next thought was what to do?

We decided to try and design a poppy on the beach but it would be dark so there was no chance of drawing it into the sand… so after a few ideas, we thought about using battery powered fairy lights.

The weather was kind and it was fairly mild for a November evening and so as folks gathered at Riley’s Fish Shack on King Edwards Bay for a relaxed evening we began to arrange our fairy lights and lanterns… we had thirty lanterns, and over the next couple of hours each one would be used, towards the end of our time there the sky cleared and the moon gave us extra light. I had the opportunity to chat to a few folk who saw what we were doing from the top and had walked down to ask. Some came from the Riley’s to take time out to remember a loved one or to think about those who perished in wars.

I spoke to a few people about who we were and what we were doing down on the beach. It was met with kindness and generosity. We spoke to locals and visitors of all ages and gave out free chocolates. We posted photos on social media through Sunday@thePub’s twitter account and our own and through instagram and facebook. Others took photos as well and shared them on social media. This was the first of what we hope will be a few ideas that we can do as a result of this. Next year we would like to do it for longer and make the poppy larger with double the amount of lanterns! Watch this space!