Magic descends upon Picton with ‘play’-ful lantern festival

Story and photos by Sharon Harrison
There was magic in the air downtown Picton on the weekend with a bustling Benson Park filled with puppetry, giant, costumed illuminations and art installations, and lantern creations galore.

The gathering place was the first part of the annual Firelight Lantern Festival, with the swell of people, bright, joyful and colourful. The memorable and magical voices of the Aurora Borealis Community Choir gently added to the uniqueness of the charmed evening – the last fine weather day before the snow fell.

The festival is all about light, and banishing the darkness of the season as daylight length diminishes at this time of the year. The festival, now in its 13th year, has become an annual tradition of bringing warmth and brightness to the chill of an otherwise dark November. There were no complaints on this relatively mild and dry evening, with not even a slight breeze to chill the air.

Bringing community together in an enchanting way in this free of charge pre-show component of the evening, the spirit and glow abundant, bringing enhancing warmth, embellishing good spirits, lighting the way with music and light and laughter, the lantern parade began.

Unique, and always a community favourite, the procession worked its way from Benson Park, up Ross Street, then Main Street, all the way to the Crystal Palace, led by the musical accompaniment of Spencer Evans and the Goat Steppers – and countless glowing lanterns and strings of light to brighten the short journey.

Many of those gathered in the park joined in the parade as part of a community procession. An extraordinary outdoor fire show with North Fire Circus took place outside the Crystal Palace (this year moved from Benson Park), wowing the big crowd which came to watch the burning performance, although due to the constricted space, some were unable to see the show.

For those who had secured tickets ahead of time to the indoor Crystal Palace part of the evening’s programming (it was a sold-out event this year), there was opportunity to view the fire show from inside with an elevated viewpoint through the windows – an even more magical experience from the cozy glowing ambience inside looking out.

The whole experience is put together by the Department of Illumination, a registered not-for-profit organization founded in 2013 and led by artistic director Krista Dalby, where the aim of the small group is to bring joy and creativity to the community by producing festivals, workshops and artistic events.

With the theme of this year’s lantern festival being ‘play’, among the play-themed activities were a card table, a Pac Man game, and a silvery twinkling tunnel of soft stuffed toys pinned to the walls, along with some illuminated giant art installations.

The evening wrapped with Niagara’s My Son the Hurricane which saw the Crystal Palace rock for several hours for the enjoyment of those who danced the energy-filled night away enjoying the sounds of the multi-horn, multi-drummer, multi-singer brass funk band, all while lighting up, and warming up, the cold November night.