International students carry a big red graduation cap lantern during the parade at the Luminous Festival in Brisbane. By Pino Migliorino
Luminous Festival lit up Brisbane’s South Bank on Friday 9 June with a spectacular lantern parade, attracting thousands of people including government, community leaders and Queenslanders.
In its 10th anniversary, the famous Luminous Festival is also known as an alternative light show which some people call ‘Vivid Brisbane’. At the Festival, community members lit over 400 lanterns made by multicultural community groups and schools across Brisbane. This year’s Luminous Festival celebrates cultural diversity and welcomes newly arrived Queenslanders including refugees, asylum seekers, international students and new migrants. Each community group carried a large unique lantern with various creations, such as sea creatures, colourful birds and a vivid LED owl. They also included iconic Australian characters such as Dame Edna Everage, ‘Nemo’ the clownfish from the Great Barrier Reef and the Story Bridge. Each lantern symbolises a culture with its unique meaning at the parade to demonstrate cultural harmony.
Cultural Perspectives Group Managing Director, Pino Migliorino happily participated in the festival as a guest leading the parade. Capturing his eye and camera lens was the large red ‘square academic cap’ designed by Chinese international students (as pictured).
Traditionally, red is viewed as a standard colour for Chinese festivals in general, meaning good fortune, luck and joy. For an international student, their happiest moment is probably wearing the graduation cap at the graduation ceremony. Therefore, the large graduation cap lantern conveyed the meaning with the best wishes and congratulations to international students.
The event concluded with a vibrant world music concert featuring various dance groups and music bands, including Rwandan Cultural Dance Group, Bolivia Marka, Aboriginal performer Geoffrey Fabiola, Future Fidel, Cook Islands Dance Group and Izalco Latin Band.
Luminous Festival promoted cultural diversity and community engagement through the variety of dazzling lanterns, enhancing mutual understanding of individuals from diverse backgrounds and breaking cultural barriers.
That is how Luminous Festival united multicultural communities.
To learn more about the Luminous Festival, please go to https://mdaltd.org.au/luminous/