Uralla is preparing for an event that, each year, fills an autumn evening with magic.
On Saturday March 31, after a week of creative lantern-making, children from Uralla and district schools will carry their candle-lit lanterns through the town in a moving celebration of Earth Hour.
This will be the sixth annual Uralla Lantern Parade and Show. Leaving Uralla Central School at 7.15 pm, the parade will wend its illuminated way down Queen Street to arrive at Alma Park for a show, beginning at about 7.45pm, that will combine the performing talents of local children and adults with the spectacle of lights, shadows and puppetry.
Massive lantern puppets, including “Dirt Girl” and “Green Man”, will tower over the parade and feature in the show. They are the creation of the Lismore-based community arts company LightnUp, whose lantern specialists will lead the week of lantern-making workshops at Uralla Central School. Children from Rocky River, Woolbrook and Kentucky Public Schools, as well as from Uralla Central, will take part in the workshops, beginning on Monday, March 26.
The director of the show will be the Sydney-based environmental educator and theatre practitioner Thor Bloomfield, who has worked with the organisers, Uralla Arts, in devising the performance.
Adults and children wishing to walk with the local children in the parade will be able to buy ready-made lanterns, costing $10 each, at Uralla Central School from 4pm on the day. Also at the school, a sausage sizzle (from 4.30pm to 6.15pm) will enable participants to eat before the parade musters at 6.30pm.
Earlier that day, at 3pm in Uralla Shire Library, the local fabric artist, writer and storyteller Helen Evans will entertain children and their families using several of her unique, hand-made tactile books illustrated with sewn fabric pictures.
The main sponsor of this year’s Uralla Lantern Parade and Show is Phoenix Foundry, and major support has been provided by Uralla Shire Council and the Federal Government through Festivals Australia. Other sponsors include Community Mutual and G & C Foundry. Uralla Bowling Club and Jobs Australia have also contributed.
