Planets and weather align for Cape Byron Steiner Winter Solstice success

Last Thursday, in the days before the Winter Solstice, and after weeks of on and off rain that had more than a few parents nervously eyeing weather apps, Cape Byron Steiner School’s annual Winter Festival went ahead.

Organisers told The Echo, ‘As if the stars themselves had RSVP’d, the skies cleared, students sang the songs of winter and the stars came out. For one luminous evening, the planets aligned figuratively and literally, as students and staff began walking the spiral. A lantern-lit symbol and long kept tradition of the CBRSS winter festival’.

‘Our school centres community building as essential to the children’s education. The community came together with a lantern-lit reverence that felt all the more special under a twilight sky, in the company and with the support of a heartfelt community.

First time at The Farm

‘This year marked a change for Cape Byron, moving closer to home. For the first time CBRSS held the festival at The Farm, after many years at Bangalow’s A&I Hall. ‘The Farm provides us with the much-needed space indoors and out for the winter festival,’ said Paddy Nash, Community Coordinator at CBRSS.

‘This year has felt like it really hit the mark in terms of holding the intimacy of the space in the way we want it.’

The school said, ‘Students from Class 3 through to Class 12 took part in a range of seasonal traditions, with staff and parents joining in alongside them. A highlight of the evening came courtesy of the Class 6 students, whose fire stave dance lit up the winter sky to the delight of the gathered community’.

‘The 2026 CBRSS Winter Festival was a wonderful reminder that the best traditions travel well and what makes a Winter Festival isn’t the hall or the grounds, it’s the people who show up for it, year after year, lanterns in hand’.