Written by Treasure Seeker Colleen in Vancouver
Not only did we go to the Japan Festival on Powell Street for the day, we also were lucky enough to walk down to Coal Harbor for the Illuminares' Parade at 5:00. This is a production by the Public Dreams Society and features a band and stilt walkers and giant lanterns and movable sculptures. It has always been exceptional and you can take a bought or home made lantern and join in the fun.
This year, they made their way from the Coal Harbor seawall to Canada Place. These people are multitalented performers and artists. Sanantha Jo Simmonds, its creative director is a theatre artist and filmmaker. She brought the large scale concept to Vancouver this year, in the form of a giant heron puppet that lead the lantern procession. The parade is what dreams are made of: floating balloons, bubbles, shapes and shape shifters, smiles, the fantastic and fabulous and people of ages. Our Arts groups have been decimated by cuts, but Public Dreams Society got a B.C. arts Council Innovations grant this time and Simmonds was able to bring in technicians and artists, notably Peter Boulanger of the Underground Circus, who designed a huge marionette for the opening of the Vancouver Convention Centre. He along with Jeny Cassady, Philip Piper, Maggie Winston, Alaistair Knowles, Arthur Hazelden and Jayson Mclean created the the aluminum and lighted giant blue Heron. Love the creative costumes and make-up and the fact that the performers interact with the audience and then the audience can participate too. The parade creates a colourful and musical fantasy against the gorgeous seas and skies of Vancouver on a glorious, sunny evening.
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