River of light flowing into year three
Sherbrooke’s "Rivières de lumières" festival is getting ready for its third edition at the end of this month. Planned through a partnership of creative enterprises the Theatre des Petites Lanternes, the labokracboom circus workshop and the maison des arts de la parole, the festival is a four-part storytelling festival that works to bring the stories of Sherbrooke to light in public spaces across the city.
Although the heart of the three-year project was the creation of a modern-day fairy tale for the people of Sherbrooke, the full festival has evolved into a collaborative exercise in lantern making and public, participatory theatre. Kristelle Holliday, Executive Director of the Theatre des Petites Lanternes, explained that the festival’s four stages move from making lanterns at festivals and workshops across the region, to walking with those lanterns lit through the streets of downtown Sherbrooke on an evening of adventure that ends at stage 3, the night market. Stage four, the fairy tale itself, takes place the following night in the Domaine Howard Park.
“Between year one and year two there was a massive jump in the work that we were doing,” Holliday said, noting that it was only in the second year that the festival branched out beyond a one-night experience in the park. “Between year two and year three it’s more about developing what already exists rather than inventing new things.”
Clearly excited about the plans that lie ahead, the director explained that lantern making events have been taking place as far away as Montreal’s West Island since Mid June.
“It is interesting to see the project start to gain outside interest,” Holliday
said, noting that the bilingual workshops provide an excellent opportunity for members of different linguistic communities to work together.
The "Rivières de lumières" festival officially begins on September 29th at 4p.m. with a lantern making workshop at the Centre des Arts de la Scene Jeanbesré on Depot Street in Sherbrooke. The workshop continues the following day at of 10 a.m. and goes right up until the time comes for people to take up their creations and walk in a “parade of light” through the downtown at 7 p.m. As was the case last year, the revelers will be treated to live music and dramatic presentations along the way.
“We’re hoping for a really exciting walk,” Holliday said. “There’s a number of surprising elements throughout the walk that make you look twice or listen twice.”
While highlighting the fact that there have been new artists and new stops planned for this year’s parade, the director also pointed out that the route has been changed to avoid stairs, which proved to be an accessibility issue in 2016.
The parade leads into the festival’s night market, which will take place at the Marché de la Gare as of 7:30 p.m.
“(The market) has really taken off like crazy,” Holliday said. “The first year we had maybe eight people in the park, last year we had 25. We’re near 40 this year.”
In addition to real vendors selling their wares, the market will feature spectacles and demonstrations of its own, including a massive marionette created by the team at labokracboom for the Montreal 375 celebrations that has yet to be shown to local audiences.
“The night market should be a glorious blast of festive fun,” Holliday said.
The festival closes out the following Friday and Saturday, October 6 and 7, with the presentation of this year’s outdoor play “Il était une fois Doltra.”
“We’re really excited because for the third year in we really feel like we’re starting to know what works and what doesn’t work and how the public responds to these elements,” the director said, explaining that the story for the play will be something of a prologue to the fairy tale presented last year. In that way, she said, newcomers will be able to enjoy the story without worrying about missing information but people who came out in 2016 will recognize elements of the story and familiar characters.
“We’re building into the past,” Holliday said, adding that people who want more information about last year’s story can find it on the festival’s website.
The festival was created as a result of a three year partnership agreement and funding plan. On the cusp of that three year mark, Holliday said that the partner groups are already looking at how to make the idea continue.
“What is clear is that all of the partners in the project and the people that we work with closely would like the project to continue,” Holliday said, adding that there is a consistent and growing interest from the general public. “Now it depends on finances; we want this event to continue but to a certain extent it doesn’t depend on us.”
More information about the festival is available at https://petiteslanternes.wixsite.com/rdlen. While the lantern workshops, parade, and market are free to attend, it is worth noting that the play is a ticketed event.