Midwinter carnival’s beginnings clarified

IN the ‘‘Weekend Mix’’ (24.6.17) Juliet Novena Sorrel was described as ‘‘cofounder’’ of the Dunedin Midwinter Carnival. In fact the carnival, first established in 1997, has only one founder — myself.

I will not bore you with the finer details of establishing this annual event. Suffice to say, along with my personal vision and energy to plan, fundraise and manifest, the creative directions for the first five foundation years of the Dunedin Midwinter Carnival (1997 to 2001) were based on ritual and storytelling, set collectively and created collaboratively.

For 2001 the creative team consisted of myself directing the ritual, Jessica Southerland directing the theatrical content, Juliet Novena Sorrel directing the lantern parade and Chris Hilder directing the pyrotechnics. It was not until 2002, when Ms Novena Sorrel took over as sole carnival creative director, that we saw it develop more exclusively into a lantern parade, which retained the basic format while abandoning the pagan ritual and forsaking the storytelling elements significant to previous midwinter celebrations in the Octagon.

For columnist Lisa Scott to write Ms Novena Sorrel’s inspiration comes from the Alexandra Blossom Festival parade does not refer to my personal inspirations that guided me to establish the carnival in 1997 as an annual event but rather offers an explanation for the development of a beautiful lantern parade, over the last 15 years.

It is my hope that the future creative direction of the carnival allows for many others to imprint their creative inspiration on this event while retaining the communitybased involvement that has been a tradition over the last 20 years of celebrating winter solstice in the Octagon.

Tracey Crampton Smith

Dunedin [Abridged]