Illuminares Lantern Festival — one of the best kept secrets of East Van, and much-loved by residents — is celebrating its 25th anniversary and final festival. The 2013 theme is 25 Light Years, but there will be no LED dragons in the trees like last year, no stilt-walkers or roving performers are being hired, and no stages with lights and amplification.

While Public Dreams welcomes any and all artists who want to come and be part of the community event, they are unfortunately not in the financial position to hire performers.

Matthew Bissett, the new Artistic Director of Public Dreams, explains that the decision is not only financial, but also bringing the festival back to it’s roots. “We want to bring it full circle — and put more emphasis on the procession, less on installations.” Bissett explains that the first Illuminares were low tech and really were about bringing the community together, and walking together around Trout Lake.

Public Dreams, with Managing Director Paula Jardine, originally started Illuminares in an effort to reclaim John Hendry Park. The park surrounding Trout Lake didn’t have proper upkeep, and the lake itself — the only lake within the city of Vancouver — was incredibly polluted. That small, humble procession has since grown to an annual event in Trout Lake, drawing more than 20,000 people each year.

While Public Dreams is no longer in a financial or structural position to continue the festival, it may not be completely gone. Bissett notes that even when the Trout Lake Community Centre was undergoing renovations and they relocated Illuminares, there were still core community members in East Vancouver who showed up with their lanterns to walk around the lake. Also, it’s possible another organization will take over the festival.

Bissett says that Public Dreams really just needs to “hibernate and figure things out.” He was brought on in March when the previous Artistic Director left abruptly, and they’ve also had half the board and many other staff turn over: “Obviously something in this structure isn’t working,” Bissett explained.

Funding has often been an issue for Public Dreams Society, an arts-based group formed in 1985 to encourage community events. Both Illuminares and their other major event, Parade of the Lost Souls, have been wrought with trouble over finances with decreases in government funding yet rising costs for policing, security, and infrastructure as the events gained popularity.

Illuminares has always been about community involvement and interaction with art and each other, and encourages people to not just be consumers of art.

“Participate. It’s about the community doing something and being together,” stresses Bissett. Participants and neighbours are encouraged to have a picnic, bring an instrument, and enjoy the surroundings. The park will be open from 6:00 p.m. onward, with the procession beginning at 9:30 p.m. from John Hendry Park.

Although there will be no stages, speakers or generators, there will be lantern-making stations on site and pop-up programming of various types. As the lantern-lit procession circumnavigates the lake, they will pass animated performances of stars within 25 light years of earth — Alpha Centauri, Sirius, Procyon, Altair, and Vega. As the procession reaches the baseball diamond, the culmination will be the favourite fire show finale.

Lantern workshops will operate the week prior to the event at Trout Lake Community Centre, July 15 to 19 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. The 2013 Illuminares Lantern Festival takes place Saturday July 20, 2013 from 6:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at John Hendry Park, Trout Lake, in East Vancouver.