The Осветяване Illuminate Parade 2022 was a fantastic collaborative community effort, celebrating Boston’s diversity. It had a watery theme, with wonderful aquatic lanterns created by school students and community groups and the public, created in free workshops with a brilliant team of artists.
There were some brilliant performances from costumed performers, stiltwalkers and musicians.
An annual event, but 2022’s was dubbed ‘Осветяване’, 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. Previous years had highlighted the Mayflower’s story and had accompanying marine themed lanterns, but this year the element took centre stage.
The event was possible thanks to Transported, Boston Borough Council, Curiosity Creators, Centre for Culture & Creativity, University of Lincoln and Arts Council England.
Photography by Steven Hatton of Electric Egg.
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.
