Musings of a Tortoisefly: Lanterns & Folk Fest

As you may know by now, I volunteer on the Lantern Committee for the Vancouver Folk Music Festival each year. Every year we have a theme (or themes) that the new lanterns are encouraged to fall into. I say encouraged, because lets face it... there are some of us that will find a way to squeeze whatever it is we want to make into the theme... no matter how far a stretch it is. Inevitably, every year there is at least one Doctor Who lantern, which took some tricky roundabout explanations last year when our theme was Under The Sea. Our fearless leader Marya is very accepting though, and as long as you don't build a lantern that is too big (or when you break that rule, as some of us have been known to do, promise to store it yourself, and not in her storage space!) she's willing to accept just about any lantern so long as it is safely constructed.

This year we had an awesome theme: Monsters. Or more specifically due to the height at which we carry the lanterns: Monsters Over The Bed.

There was tons of room for interpretation there, and I am proud to say that many of our committee members took rather geeky routes in their lantern choices.

Before showing you some of this years awesome monster lanterns though, there are two lanterns that need special attention. This past year we lost one of our own. Andrew was a long-time member of our team, always at the ready with bizarre topics of conversation and jokes that were so bad they were funny. Andrew loved bacon, toilet seats, glitter, and making people smile. He often walked around wearing his purple top hat, and was also known for his Baby Cthulhu costume. In tribute to him, two lanterns were made by committee members this year: The Hat, and Cthulhu.

Todd is the longest running member of our team. He was instrumental in keeping the lantern committee (and thus lantern procession) going when it was in danger of being dropped. He started working on his squid lantern several years ago... exactly how many years ago is up for debate, but it is definitely more than four and less than ten. This year, life got in the way and he was too busy to be able to volunteer, but he did show up for Friday night procession with a wonderful surprise for all of us. He finally finished his giant squid attacking a whale, and it is glorious! A true work of art, every bend and curve carefully constructed and flawlessly papered. I aspire to one day be able to build and paper with his level of skill. Todd's attention to detail is out of this world, something that takes a great deal of talent, time, and patience. It is no wonder it took so long to make this masterpiece.

I only have one clear picture of Lin's newest lantern, even though I could have sworn I took several. While I can almost pronounce the type of prehistoric sea creature it is, I cannot for the life of me spell it... I know this as I spent about half an hour trying to Google it in order to type it here. Sorry Lin! If someone can tell me the proper spelling I will edit this post accordingly.

My lantern this year was the cute, but slightly obscure Adipose from Doctor Who. Lin and I tend to have an unofficial contest between us to see how many people can correctly identify our lanterns. This year I think she had 3, while I had 8. In addition to those 8 correct Adipose identifications, there were several elephants, owls, R2D2, an igloo, and a woman who was very adamant that I had made a penguin. She actually stood there arguing with anyone who would listen and dare to say it was something else. I wonder if that last woman had spent the majority of her day in the Beer Garden?

Other lanterns with their names/descriptions captioned below.