Byron Bay’s free Harmony Day celebration on Saturday, March 23 starts at 3.30pm in Apex Park, Main Beach, with live global beats and dance from our region’s multicultural community.
Bundjalung man Colin Valuup Appo will offer his Welcome to Country, with didgeridoo accompaniment, to be followed by Byron Bay locals, Elliot Orr master of the African djembe, traditional Japanese drumming enthusiasts Byron Taiko, the Brazilian rhythms of Batala Samba Percussion and the exuberant Bollywood Sisters dance group from Lismore.
After 4pm the performers will form a procession of rhythm through Byron Bay along Jonson Street’s pedestrian ways. The Global Beats Harmony Parade will arrive at the Railway Park Twilight Market after 4.30pm, where there will be more performances to enjoy from the drumming and dancing groups, as well as delicious feasts from the many multicultural-themed food vendors.
From 5pm you are invited to join in Japanese lantern-making, offered by the local Japanese community and friends as well as bracelet-making and badge-making organised by a team from Social Futures.
The crew from the Lismore Lantern Parade, LightnUp Inc, will converge with locals at the twilight market, bringing with them some of their spectacular, creative lanterns, to join the evening’s Harmony Day Lantern Parade, to be held after dark.
Before the night parade there will be Japanese sword dance, and kimono dance cultural performances. From 7pm the Byron Taiko group, followed by community lantern-making participants and the Lismore LightnUp Inc crew, will lead the Harmony Day Lantern Parade back along Jonson Street to Apex Park for a drumming finale to close the celebrations.
