Saturday, June 22 2024 will see the Lismore Lantern Parade celebrate 30 years of bringing light and joy to the hearts of the Lismore community.

From humble beginnings in 1994 when a few hundred people turned up to the Lismore Rowing Club, to the 15,000 plus crowd that line the streets of the CBD to watch the many lanterns pass by and make their way to the Fiery Finale.

It is a testament to the passion and commitment of LightnUp Inc's CEO Jyllie Jackson OAM and the thousands of volunteers that have provided much-needed support over the 30-year journey.

To celebrate this milestone, LightnUp wants to collect your favourite memories of the Lismore Lantern Parade over the last 30 years.

(The 2019 Fiery Finale)

"We're going to have 500 little postcards that you can write on the back and send to us or leave it at a point of pickup, which will be around the CBD like the pop-up Museum in Molesworth Street, pop-up Library, Lismore Square or at the Farmers Markets," Jyllie told the Lismore App, "Or people can email us directly festival@lanternparade.com.

"Were you a toddler amazed by the huge glowing creatures walking through the streets and now you bring your children to share the magic or you took part in the fiery finale and carried a flaming fire torch. We want to hear from you."

As for Jyllie, who was one of the volunteers helping in the set-up in the early years before taking the reigns, what are her favourite memories?

"I think I think 2022 was incredibly important for me. Three months after the flood we still bought the lanterns through the streets. That was really important. We lost John then."

Jyllie was referring to local musician John Lush who suffered a heart attack in 2022 at the age of 43.

"We acknowledged John last year as well. We stopped at that spot and the pipe band played Amazing Grace, which was just beautiful."

"It has been really important to bring the community together in times of adversity which we did at Oakes Oval after 2017."

It is certainly incredible to think that Jyllie and her team have never missed one Lismore Lantern Parade when the building was flooded in 2022 and then there were the COVID-19 years.

(At the Lismore Showgrounds in 2021)

"We sneakily took lanterns down to the CBD," Jyllie explained, "And we had the virtual Lantern Parade where people were sent a kit to make their own lanterns at home for them to hang on their balcony or walk around their street."

Renowned local audio storyteller Jeanti St Clair (Flood Stories) will record a few of these memories and then combine them with some incredible Lantern Parade images and create a stirring audio-visual display that will be on show at the pop-up Museum and at Lismore Square for the month of June.

"We'll also play the display at the beginning of the Fiery Finale and we'll have people's postcard stories up so people can read them."

For now, the Lismore Lantern Parade need your memories. Jyllie is looking for your stories from the early days in 1994 to last year's parade and everything in between. Look out for the postcards throughout the CBD or email festival@lanternparade.com.