INNISFAIL – Dale Dunham is a huge Star Wars fan.
And he wants the citizens of Innisfail and beyond to have a full-day cosmic experience by Napoleon Lake at the town's Centennial Park.
“For me personally, I'm a total Star Wars geek,” said Dunham, an organizer for the 4th annual Innisfail Lantern & Light Festival being held Aug. 16 from 3 to 11 p.m.
This year’s theme is Galactic Journey, a trip through space and time.
It marks a huge departure from 2024 when the theme was Under the Sea.
“We had done the Alice in Wonderland (theme), and the first year we just had the general theme, and we were just thinking of something that would be fun and would be fairly easy for people to come up with ideas,” said Dunham. “We felt for those people who struggled in the past with coming up with ideas this would probably be a fairly easy one for them to do.”
As in previous years, event organizers hosted a series of workshops to help citizens create lanterns to match the Galactic Journey theme.
“We've actually had more workshops this year than we had in the past. The Innisfail Historical Village was wonderful enough to donate three different evenings at the Tea Room for us to be able to do workshops,” said Dunham.
“And considering how many people we've had at the workshops and what we're getting, I think it's something that people have really been able to grasp and come up with some really neat ideas.”
The year’s festival at Centennial Park will also feature lantern decorating from 4 to 7 p.m., a market beginning at 2 p.m., a free barbecue from 5 to 7 p.m. and WALL-E, a 2008 American animated romantic science fiction film played outdoors on a 16-foot-wide outdoor blow-up screen.
“People can come and bring their lawn chairs and blankets and watch it,” said Dunham. “WALL-E is a cartoon, and favourite for a lot of people, so we chose to show that one.”
The climax of the festival, or Grand Finale Twilight Celebration as organizers describe it, will be held at dusk when the collective lantern creations are illuminated.
“We will have a laser light show and the lights on, along with some music,” said Dunham.
