By Kath Gannaway
Warburton’s River of Light Winter Festival was a wonderful success on Saturday 29 July, despite a blast from Mother Nature!
“We were so focused on hoping it didn’t rain, we forgot to ask for no wind,” said Sam Watson, who along with Phoebe Lines organised the mid-winter festival.
“We were very impressed with the turn-out, given the wind.”
The main event, the Lantern Parade proceeded along the main street and a small section of the Yarra River walk deemed safe.
“The CFA has their torches to guide us, and it looked very beautiful,” Sam said.
The festivities continued in the Mechanics Institute Hall with hot food, poetry and music.
Illuminous, an experimental creative art piece originally destined for outdoors came inside to open the activities, followed by Yule, Phoebe Like The Moon and The Anecdote.
Sam said there was a sense that people were having a wonderful time.
“Universally, the people we spoke to on the night valued that we were able to do it, and because it was free it was accessible to everyone.
“It can be quite isolating in winter in the Valley when there are not so many large community gatherings, and we realised when we did the bush dance at ECOSS recently that people enjoyed coming out and having a high energy event, and how valued that is in the dark of winter.”
Sam and Phoebe will be venturing out into social media to ask for feedback on the event.
Facebook River of Light Winter Festival.
