Lismore Lantern Parade

About

The Lismore Lantern Parade is an annual community event held on or around the longest night of the year, being the Winter Solstice. It is recognised as the signature event for the City of Lismore attracting more than 25,000 people each year and contributing approximately 3.4 million to the local economy.

The event is held in Lismore, just one-hour south from the Gold Coast, twenty minutes from iconic Nimbin, and thirty minutes inland from popular Byron Bay. It’s home to around 45,000 people and is surrounded by beautiful, lush countryside, pockets of small villages and nestled between World Heritage Rainforest. It’s a city of contrasts and diversity and is known for its links to the agricultural and dairy industries as well as the Northern Rivers centre for business, education, culture, retail, sport and health. It has a strong connection to culture and the arts through partnerships with Northern Rivers Performing Arts (NORPA), the Lismore Regional Gallery and the Northern Rivers Conservatorium of Music.

Each year the Lantern Parade involves participants from Lismore, throughout the Northern Rivers and visitors to the region who have attended workshops in lantern, mask and costume making. School and community workshops start at Easter each year with many other volunteers travelling from across the Northern Rivers region, South East Queensland, around NSW, South Australia and Victoria to participate in this event.

In 2019 the event will be held on Saturday 22 June commencing at noon with a unique art and craft market, street food vans, children’s activities, a youth hub, workshops, lantern decorating and a festival stage featuring local musicians and dancers. At dusk illuminated puppets in the Lismore Library tell the story for the year and the Lantern Parade dances through the streets of the Lismore central business district (CBD) and culminates at the Lismore Quadrangle, a public meeting square in the heart of the city centre, for a fiery theatrical finale and fabulous firework display. The event continues on into the evening until 9pm with music, dance and performance.

New associated events for 2019 will include a Gala Concert featuring Moorambilla Voices Maxed Out, Schools Choir and the Art of Fyre, structure and poetic workshops, a ‘Rivers of Light’ photo exhibition at the Lismore Regional Gallery and a celebration at Riverside Park on the following day at dusk for a flotilla of canoes, kayaks, tinnies and rowing boats covered with lanterns to meander along the Wilson’s River.

The Lismore Lantern Parade partners with the Viking Village held on both the Saturday and Sunday and the Friendship Festival held on Sunday to provide a weekend Festival of celebrations.

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