A festival of light

Story and Photos: Ramesh Pooran
Lantern parade along Picton Main Street banishes November gloom

Over 500 people attended Saturday evening’s Firelight Lantern Festival in Picton. Starting off from Benson Park, a parade of light made its way to the Crystal Place. While there were a few large lanterns created by the parade’s organizers, the vast majority of the participants carried their own paper lanterns—illuminated with LED lights—created at one of a number of workshops offered during the past six weeks. Many marchers wore costumes reflecting this year’s circus theme and adorned themselves with strings of lights as well, making for a bright and colourful procession.

The interior of the Crystal Palace was transformed into a carnival midway, with papier mâché acrobats vaulting across the ceiling, banners hung on the walls, games of chance, a tattoo parlour—the tattoos being of the temporary kind—and a fortune teller bearing an uncanny resemblance to County actor Rick Zimmerman. Circus performers Erin Ball and Chris Stroesser treated attendees to a complex and visually stimulating light show using an illuminated hula hoop and strands of multi-coloured LEDs. The crowd could listen or dance to the funky, upbeat music of Dave Clark and the Woodshed Orchestra, although in the early going it seemed as if only the very young were populating the dance floor. Later, and one may be able to infer the influence of the available beer and wine, there were considerably more adults grooving to the music.

Krista Dalby, who co-organized the event with Susanne Larner, was ecstatic about the turnout. “It was a great success,” she said. “I think, artistically, a lot of people have said it’s the best one ever.” While Dalby and Larner are the major contributors and driving force behind the festival, they had a team of over 50 volunteers helping to bring off the event. “We consider this to be a completely collaborative affair with the community,” said Dalby. “We had two artists from Kingston who were quite involved in creating the midway. We’re really fortunate that so many people stepped up to be part of it.” This year, nearly 200 people attended various lantern-making workshops, bringing the total to almost 1,100 participants over the past four years.

Dalby and Larner were not able to secure an Ontario Arts Council (OAC) grant this year, and had to resort to crowdfunding via Indiegogo to raise money for the festival. A number of County artists and businesses offered incentives for donations, allowing the crowdfunding to reach its goal. Together with community sponsors, additional donations and financial support from the County, Dalby and Larner were able to raise enough money to put on the fourth edition of the festival. They intend to apply for an OAC grant next year. “There’s no event like this in the County that is really a grassroots, artistic collaboration with no particular reason, other than community building and joy and celebration,” said Dalby. “Something like this is important in a rural community for how it can bring people together. This is created by and for our community.”