This year the procession will feature light and sound with Burlington’s 20-person street samba band, Sambatucada in the lead. Students from Thatcher Brook Primary School and Crossett Brook Middle School along with artists, volunteers, and community members from Stowe, Montpelier and Waterbury will literally form the ‘river of light’ as they walk carrying handmade lanterns.
Aside from the lanterns made in school, Montpelier artists Gowri Savoor and Angelo Arnold will be holding two community lantern-making workshops at the TW Wood Art Gallery, Montpelier, and the Helen Day Art Center, Stowe. In addition, a special two-day workshop was held in Waterbury for artists creating larger-scale luminaries. All will aim to depict the theme of this year’s parade – flight.
Procession sponsors are Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, the Vermont Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Thatcher Brook Primary School PTO. Organizers hope it will be a particularly festive celebration bringing together the residents of Waterbury and its neighbouring communities after the extensive damage caused by August’s tropical storm.
Spectators are encouraged to line the parade route and join in celebrating the season with this evening of light, music, creative arts and community spirit. For more information, contact Thatcher Brook School art teacher, MK Monley, mmonley@wdsdvt.net or visit our website at: www.ariveroflightinwaterbury.wordpress.com
Photograph by Gordon Miller
