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The Event
The Victoria Park Lantern Festival is a participatory event that
brings people together to celebrate their community and light up their
park with hundreds of home-made lanterns. This festival strives to encourage
artistic expression, public participation and community-building in
the Victoria Park area, and to ensure that the park remains a vibrant
part of our urban landscape. The event is inspired by the Illuminares
Lantern Procession which has been produced by the
Public Dreams Society in Vancouver, B.C. for over 20 years.
People are invited to attend public lantern-making workshops where they
make lanterns constructed of tissue paper and bamboo, and lit by tea-light
candles. Local artists work to create large-scale lantern and art installations
for the park.
The festival also incorporates music, theatre, giant puppets, stilts
and other performances. On the day of the festival, people gather in
the afternoon for picnics and a final chance to make a simple lantern
for the parade. Drum workshops, music, costumes and performances animate
the park in the early evening. As it grows dark, the crowd gathers and
lanterns are lit. The evening culminates in a lantern procession around
the park, led by the Scruncheons and the Black Auks, two local
percussion ensembles.
The first annual Victoria Park Lantern Festival was a fabulous
success with hundreds of people making lanterns at workshops, and over
800 people in the park for the event. A huge thank you to everyone who
volunteered and performed at the event, and to every person who made
a lantern – without you there would be no festival. We hope to
see you there again this year!
Now the Victoria Park
Lantern Festival has become one of the most spectacular events in St John's! Every year
Victoria Park is turned into a true example of community spirit with the
community made lantern installation, performances, and all of the volunteers that bring it
together.
Every person that get involved remembers and cherishes the festival for its
openness, accessibility, and natural celebration of the beauty of Victoria Park.
Please get involved and help keep this festival a vital part of the St.
John's Community.
