All was not lost for the organisers of a lantern parade, despite miserable weather.

This year’s annual Christmas Lantern Parade, organised by Big Fish Arts, was due to take place along the High Street, Sheerness, on Saturday evening.

But after a whole day of rain, they had to come up with another solution.

Luckily, Thomas Holland of Tantra Nightclub, stepped in and offered them the use of his building and all those who turned up still managed to enjoy some hot chocolate, sausage rolls and mince pies.

Members of St John Ambulance and the organisers of Sheppey Relay for Life came along and the Air Training Corps band played a couple of tunes to keep everyone entertained.

This year the theme of the parade was flight, to tie in with the Island’s aviation centenary celebrations next year.

Chris Reed of Big Fish Arts said: “The weather was absolutely appalling – with the young children and the sticks dangling in the wind it would’ve been so dangerous and the tissue paper on the lanterns would have disintegrated in the rain – there was no way we could have had the parade in the rain.

“But quite a lot of people still turned up and we all had a very jolly time – it wasn’t a complete loss.

“I would like to say a big thank you to Thomas Holland – he lets us meet in Tantra every year.”