This Saturday, local lantern parade legend Chantelle Rytter and her Krewe of the Grateful Gluttons will bring an upside down parade to Historic Fourth Ward Park. I had the opportunity to speak with Rytter about the concept, and how it has evolved from the OG Beltline Lantern Parade.
“Many of our monsters are here, putting their finishing touches on it, making their tiny ghosts. The studio is rocking,” Rytter told me over the phone. While we talked, I could faintly hear the voices of people working on their projects at her studio on Atlanta’s Westside.
First I wanted to understand, what does it mean that the parade is upside down? Turns out that refers to an event wherein the characters are stationary and the spectators move through the space, interacting with the parade on their own time.
Rytter told me that they had first tried this kind of format with a lantern puppet safari they put on in Hilton Head. At the time of this parade, due to Covid-era precautions it was safer for visitors to drive by characters at their stations, and the monsters would approach the cars.
Through the experience of that safari Rytter saw some upsides to the switch up. “One of the things we loved about it was spending just a few seconds with everyone,” said Rytter. “Having those little interactions between the people and the puppets is magical.” In a traditional parade format, you can only really interact with one out of every 20 or so visitors due to the speed of the march.
Also yearning to launch an additional parade that is more closely tied to Halloween, Rytter created this monster parade as her answer to the local creepy season festivities. Rytter paired up with Atlanta Beltline Art who fully funded the project as part of their fall arts programming.
“I was missing Halloween, I really wanted a blowout for Halloween,” said Rytter. In addition to a deep affinity for handcrafted costumes and lantern creations, she’s also interested in infusing storytelling and creative writing into her lantern practice.
“I love local lore and legend, so I wanted a handmade local lore creepy thing happening for us on Halloween.”
Activating the Clear Creek Basin at the Historic Fourth Ward Park, Rytter highlighted that this park is special in part due to an innovative design that supports local waterways through a 2-acre stormwater detention pond. “And storms are the energies of the unknown,” said Rytter.
The pond itself is built below the water table and generates more than 425 gallons per minute, according to the Historic Fourth Ward Park Conservancy.
“It’s a really special location to me,” Rytter continued. “It’s good what they did for this water problem there. They didn’t bury the water and hide it, they sort of built a monument to it. That lends itself to being a magical place.”
Want to join the festivities? You can learn more about upcoming workshops including one tonight, Wed., Oct. 16 plus access free ideas to craft your own ‘Weird Thing’ for those interested in participating on the official website.
“In my dream world all the weird things have stories and they have tiny gifts to share. We are going to turn the parade upside down once a year to call them and invite them to sing and dance with us and listen to their tales.”
The “Where the Weird Things Are” parade will kick off on Sat., Oct. 19, 2024 with a vortex opening ceremony and musical performance by The Black Sheep Ensemble at 7 p.m., followed by storytime at the Amphitheatre from 7:45-8:15 p.m., and the parade will wrap up by 8:30 p.m. with an all-creature conga line around the pond.
