Photo: Meg Hellyer.

This winter the hills community came together in a sign of resilience with a special variation of the Belgrave Lantern Festival, lighting the streets and shop windows of Belgrave with an array of colourful lanterns. The festival is held each year to celebrate the winter solstice and ‘light the longest night’.

This year’s festival was ‘reimagined’ with a difference. Normally where the festival would be held on just one night with a lantern parade attracting large crowds, this year the festival became a public art installation held over two weeks in response to current restrictions.

From 20 June until 5 July, the community was invited to place lanterns in shop windows, their windows at home, at work, school, in front yards and in driveways. The result was a collection of everything from owls to toadstools, giant cockatoos, chickens knitting, steampunk air balloons, Nemo under the sea, and even Bluey!

What a great way to lift spirits – and well done to the organisers for ‘reimagining’ the event so well. I can’t wait to see what gets dreamed up next year.

Meg Hellyer