Firelight Lantern Festival

Bringing light to a dark November night

Hundreds of families enjoyed a night out under the stars surrounded by the many lights at the ninth annual Firelight Lantern Festival held on the grounds at the Crystal Palace in Picton. After holding a virtual festival last year, cofounder Krista Dalby was happy to be holding one in-person, albeit in a different form than previous years. “I couldn’t be happier about how it all turned out. It was really perfect, and I think we’ve set the high bar for future festivals,” she said. Typically, the festival is preceded by a month of lantern making workshops. This year instead the organizers, the collective known as The Department of Illumination, made available a number of free lantern making kits, so that people could make their own house-shaped lanterns at home. Students at Athol-South Marysburgh School in Cherry Valley also made a number of lanterns. About 90 of these lanterns were used to make up a display called Tiny Town Aglow in the window of Books & Company. “I’m really happy how that turned out. We had the full range of participation from little kids to professional artists, so it really does represent the range of skills in our community,” said Dalby.

The festival itself was held outside the Crystal Palace, rather than inside, to allow for proper social distancing. While different, it did offer certain advantages beyond satisfying COVID-19 safety protocols. “We were able to create installations on a really large scale, and there was lots of room for people to stand back and appreciate the larger scale works of art,” said Dalby. “We really seized the opportunity to do things differently this time.” The theme for this year’s festival was Vacationland, and Dalby said it was a consideration of what it is like to live in a place where other people like to vacation. Cofounder Susanne Larner created a campsite, complete with illuminated firepit, raccoons and an oversize illuminated pink flamingo. Artist Rosalie Malheux created a satirical take on luxury vacation sites, with faux Greek columns and illuminated fountains. Nella Casson collected discarded beach floating toys—objects that vacationers would buy and then not have the inclination to take back home with them— to create a couple of artworks. She quilted an enormous banner that read “Vacationland” and another piece titled Funeral for Dead Floaties, to bring attention to the waste that vacationers leave behind, and the impact it has on our environment. In the same theme there was also a large fish made from 200 repurposed plastic jugs. Spark Box Studios created a large illuminated monolith that visitors could interact with by using their cell phones. DJ Ombudsman was on hand to play dance music, and keeping with the Vacationland theme there were tasty treats from the Kaleidoscope food truck and Department of Illumination swag from a souvenir shop. Live performance was also part of this year’s festival. There was a fire-spinner, a flag dancer and an illuminated stilt walker from Trellis Arts and Entertainment. The musical band was Culture Reject, and they collaborated with Dylin North to create an interactive light show using projections on a number of screens.

The festival was partly funded by a COVID-19 relief grant, and with support from local businesses, as well as from the Picton Recreation Committee. Ticket prices were kept as low as possible to make the event accessible to everyone. The Department of Illumination will be involved in a number of projects in the near future. They will be taking part in this year’s Santa Extravaganza at the Picton harbour, and will be launching the Circles of Joy project where residents will be asked to share their stories of joy. Coming in February 2022 is the Ice Box Festival. For more information, please visit deptofillumination.org.