A paper-lantern festival designed to add some light up a dreary time of year is back for the second year in New Denver on Saturday.
“We’re looking for ways to brighten up the dark days of January,” said Leanne Fulton, co-organizer of Spark in the Dark.
“It’s typically a bit of a let-down time after the Christmas holidays and being dark and dreary, we wanted to bring the community together and create some fun and light in what can be a difficult month for all of us.”
Fulton said last year’s festival had a “wonderful level of participating” and lots of positive feedback from the community. The school got involved and people of all generations made lanterns.
“It was fun to see what people came up with. You just don’t know what people are making until the day of the event.”
Leading up to this year’s festival, they have once again been holding free lantern-making workshops. The festival itself is from 5 to 9 p.m. and begins with a parade at the Kohan Garden, which will make its way through town to the Bosun Hall, where they will be food and a band.
Fulton said that’s a change from last year, where there were no food vendors and the band played outside in the park, but it was quite cold. They have also moved the event from a weekday to a Saturday in hopes more people can attend.
The parade route will include walking past the extended-care pavilion at Slocan Community Health Centre. “We’re excited to be able to show the lanterns to people in the pavilion,” Fulton said.
