Protest Leads Organizers to Cancel Lantern Parade
The Christmas Village Lantern Parade has been canceled.
That word comes via an email from Aversa PR and a note on the website. Lantern Parade organizers decided to call off the event after Ferguson protests were scheduled at the same time in LOVE Park.
The now-cancelled parade of “traditional German-style lanterns” was scheduled to start at the LOVE sculpture at 5 p.m. The event was scheduled to include performers from Enchantment Theatre’s The Snow Queen, a performance by the Philly Pops and a singalong led by the children from East Passyunk Ave’s Alphabet Academy.
Here’s the note from Aversa:
Earlier today, LOVE Park was announced as a potential location for protests tomorrow evening. Organizers are concerned with traffic and access to LOVE Park, as well as potential logistical problems of large numbers of people attempting to occupy the same space for different purposes.
Organizers thank the local schools, non-profits and other organizations for their help and hope everyone will join them again next season for the Lantern Parade’s debut in 2015.
According to the Inquirer, the 5 p.m. protest is scheduled by the Ferguson National Response Network — a group that organized Philly protests the day of and the day after it was announced Darren Wilson would not be indicted in the shooting death of Michael Brown.
Update: Per a Philadelphia alert, the protesters are from a group called Bloc the Police State. A post on Anarchist News supports the protest: “We believe this is a crucial time for anti-authoritarian perspectives and methods to actively engage in a struggle against this racist pig state. We, as a medium sized affinity of individuals from Philly decided to push for a space for this to happen.”
