Halloween parade gets Lú Festival of Light off to a spooky start

Words and pictures by Andy Spearnan

The centre of Drogheda was taken over by a motley assortment of monsters, ghouls and spooks on Friday evening for a fantastic Halloween Spooks Parade to get the Lú Fesitval of Light off to a colourful start.

Parents and their children, most of whom were dressed for the part, lined the length of West Street as they waited for the procession of scary monsters, musicians, members of the Voices of the Boyne Choir and Kids Cast dancers to make their way along the street.

Building on the huge success of last year’s event, the parade was much improved and the crowd much bigger.

The parade was part of the Droichead Arts Centre’s Leanbh Children’s Festival who had teamed up with Kada KaBoom Arts and Kids Cast who brought their phenomenal energy and creativity to create scenes that will stick in the minds of their young audience for many years.

The organisers of the parade said it was in tribute to the mythical Celtic powers of An Cailleach. We’d no idea who she was either but Google told us she was a supernatural old woman who was thought to be responsible for the darker days and colder nights of winter.

This mythical reference was way above most of the participants and their audience who were just out to enjoy a fun night on the town which was devoid of traffic.

On that note it was great to see people enjoying themselves in West Street without any traffic apart from a few parked cars which had obviously been there before the street was closed.

The weather could not have been better for the parade, nor the timing. Just minutes after the parade ended the first of the light displays started at Laurence’s Gate which drew gasps of delight from the audience with its fantastic projections and fascinating commentary.

The 2023 Lú Festival of Light runs from Friday, October 27th to Tuesday, October 31st and from Thursday, November 2nd – Saturday, November 4th and you can find all the information you need at https://www.lufestivaloflight.com/information

From 7.00 pm until well after 9.00 pm there were fantastic light projections at St. Laurence’s Gate, St. Peter’s Church in West Street, The Old Abbey and, new this year, the garden of the former Methodist Church in Laurence Street.

Also new this year is a fascinating light show at Dominic’s Bridge which is projected on to a screen of water which is pumped into the air which combines the fluidity of water with the timeless stories of the wonderful Boyne Valley.

Congratulations and thanks are due to all involved in getting this event up and running. The list includes LoveDrogheda, Droichead Arts Centre, Visit Louth, Visual Spectrum Studio, Drogheda on the Boyne Tourism, Discover Boyne Valley Ireland’s Ancient East, Kada KaBoom Arts, Voices of the Boyne Choir, Kids Cast and Louth County Council

Very special thanks also to all of the children and their Mammies and Daddies who turned up in such large numbers dressed in wonderfully scary costumes.