Creative Lights Festival: Fantastic Fiction

Creative Lights Festival: Fantastic Fiction comes to Rose Hill Community Centre on Saturday 14 November, as part of Oxford's Christmas Lights Festival 2026. It's a free family day that starts at 2.00pm, and the whole thing is built around the joy of reading and imagination. The afternoon begins with lantern-making workshops, where local young people make lanterns inspired by their favourite books, characters and fictional adventures — bringing fiction to life through light and creativity.

After the making, there's a free community meal, and from 4.30pm everyone gathers outside the centre with their lanterns. At 5.00pm the parade sets off, winding around the Rose Hill estate and mixing the hand-made lanterns with larger creations and a live band, before finishing at The Oval by 6.00pm. It's a joint project from Rose Hill Junior Youth Club, Film Oxford, Rose Hill Community Centre and other local groups.

Film Oxford is the creative arts charity behind it. They work in East Oxford to bring creative projects to economically or socially disadvantaged groups, with training and production supporting disabled artists, young people and socially isolated individuals. They also hold an archive of over 40 years of film and art, with a YouTube Showcase of more than 300 films dating back to the 1980s.

So, if you're around Rose Hill on the 14th, you can drop in from 2.00pm for the workshops, stay for the meal, and join the parade when it sets off at 5.00pm. It's free throughout, and the whole thing wraps up at The Oval by 6.00pm.