Hear a summary of the event in Bulgarian, here.
Hear a summary of the event in Lithuanian, here.
Hear a summary of the event in Polish, here.
It’s that time of year again…
Save the date!
On Thursday 24th November 2022, our annual illuminated winter festival is returning for another spectacular evening celebrating Boston after a creative lead up of workshops and activities with the community.
If you’ve been to one of these events before you may have known it as ‘Illuminate’.
This year, we’re dubbing it ‘Осветяване’ (Oos-veh-tyah-vah-ni), the Bulgarian word for illuminate, as a celebration of Boston’s diverse population and to cement Boston’s identity as a town where all of its residents can feel welcome, at home and able to contribute to the culture of the place.
Illuminate is an inclusive event and we wanted to represent that this year by acknowledging another of the many other languages spoken by people who live and work in and around Boston. The Illuminate event was initially inspired to commemorate Separatist migrants over four centuries ago and continuing to have resonance with communities old and new in Boston today.
We will be working with local businesses and schools that are representative of Boston’s diversity to create costumes, lanterns and other themed artwork that will be featured in the Thursday 24th’s procession. As well as arranged sessions, we will be having a market stall on two November Saturdays and two further public workshops where everyone is welcome to come and get involved in the free arts activities lead by professional artists and have the option to walk in the parade too (keep your eye out for more details on these to come).
The procession will be making its way slowly from Central Park, through Bargate, and finishing in the Market Place where there will be lots to see and do at the Boston Christmas Market.
The evening will see a beautiful parade procession of Bostonians working their artwork proudly in a carnival atmosphere, with a samba band, percussion music, dancers, stilt walkers, magical illuminated lanterns and impressive puppets.
This year’s Illuminate has a watery theme. Expect to see mythological sirens of the sea surrounded by flocks of birds, schools of fish and underwater creatures gliding through the town, a giant dragonfly, also known as the water nymph casting it’s shimmering glow and the ghostly lights of the will-o’-the-wisp.
Осветяване is a celebration of the community, so it is a fantastic opportunity to engage with Transported’s other community-made artwork that celebrate Boston’s heritage, like the Radical Routes online publication and the Dolphin Lane Heritage Mosaic.
We hope to see you all enjoying another wonderful year of this winter festivity!
This event is possible thanks to Transported, Boston Borough Council, Curiosity Creators, Centre for Culture & Creativity, University of Lincoln and Arts Council England.
