By Tyler Wright
Roughly ten thousand people had the joy of experiencing this year’s Belgrave Lantern Parade; the town’s first openly public annual festival since 2019 before the pandemic began.
With new dispersed entertainment precincts and the Belgrave Food Garden showcasing their site before the event, Grants and Events coordinator for the Belgrave Traders Association Jeremy Angerson said a “beautiful, generous, triumphant” spirit returned on the evening of Saturday 25 June.
“The train station was just pumping people from down the line into the township; just throngs of people,” Jeremy said.
“The width and breadth of the main street, I don’t think you could [have] squeezed another soul into that street on the night.
“After two years of lockdown, it was essential that we brought back the light in Winter.”
Lanterns created by schools, kindergartens and community groups across the Hills have brightened Main Street each year since 2007.
The Belgrave Food Garden, which formed in late 2021 and is located behind the Cameo Cinemas and Inspiro Health, held lantern-making workshops and the opening of their information board.
“We had a huge number of families come to make their own lanterns out of recycled fabrics and materials…about 200,” the garden’s Head of Committee Ellie McSheedy said.
“We had really great support from Belgrave traders… [with] the lantern making we were using recycled milk cartons which came from all the cafes on the high street which was a great use of plastic that would usually get carted off to be recycled.”
“We had people who were there for an hour to an hour and a half, doing the craft listening to the acoustic music, we were sharing mulled apple juice or a nice warm drink, and we had quite a few people playing in the flower beds and chatting before the lantern parade started,” Ellie said.
“It was lovely to share that moment with them to really get the message out about the garden, and the community space [where] we’re trying to create workshops, and the working bees that we offer to really give people skills and confidence to be able to grow their own produce, which is particularly important with the rising cost of food and growing food insecurity.”
Three different local acts took to the stage in the new precincts, and a partnership with Yarra Ranges Council’s ‘Defrosted Events’ youth group brought what Jeremy Angerson called an “enormous amount of energy and fire” to the event.
“Because we’re coming out of Covid and we didn’t want everyone sort of clumping together in one area, we wanted them doing a lap of the township and rediscovering what else the township has to offer,” he said.
“All of its little nooks and crannies and spaces were creatively activated; and that can invite participation at a whole new level as well.
Showcasing all that Belgrave has to offer; from its alleyways, to its arcades, to its carparks to its beautiful green gardens all working together as one.”
