Lightwater Drums Festival - January 24th, 2015

The LightWater Drums Festival, a light filled, musical family event, put on by Hastings North Community Partners Group, was a spectacular evening extravaganza, especially welcome after a long, dark and stormy Saturday. We packed our cameras and umbrellas but the night turned out to be warm and dry, such a grand night for a parade! Good thing that the umbrellas could be tossed, because we needed our hands for lanterns, light sticks, photo equipment and, at the end of it all, for holding that lovely hot chocolate and sharing big bags of buttery popcorn.

The setting for the festival, was just beyond the entrance to the Pacific National Exhibition at the new Creekway Park, part of the greening development of the PNE Park lands. This park used to be a parking lot but is now a series of walks around interconnected ponds, surrounded by trees and flowers, an oasis in the middle of the city. All of the walkways were lit by lanterns and works of art by children. Led by the Carnival Band and Bloca Energia, families added so much color with their hand made lanterns, made in workshops at Hastings Community Center, and even more animated discussion about the fun they had making these unique creations.  Along the way, fire performances set to music by Radiant Heat, added to the excitement and set feet to dancing. 

The evening ended with an indoor display by Circus West acrobats, jugglers, unicyclists, stilt walkers, and aerialists, all accompanied by families drumming.

Thanks to Hastings North Community Partners Group, Pamela Buck, Community Special Events Coordinator and to all of the following:

Ariel Anderson - Hooper - Bloco Energia

Carnival Band 

Circus West Performing Arts Society

Isabelle Kirouac Arevalo - Stilter

Radian Heat Fire Performance Troupe - Fireplay

Random Acts of Drumming - Ron Stelting, Drum Circle Facilitator 

Tetsu Taiko Drummers