The Public Dreams Society is moving its popular Illuminares lantern procession from Trout Lake to the Downtown Eastside. Although it’s mainly the result of the B.C. Liberals’ cuts to gaming grants, the move also allows the annual festival to find its stride in a new neighbourhood, according to the festival’s artistic director, Sam Shem.

“We want to develop the Downtown Eastside community, like we did with Trout Lake,” Shem told the Straight. “It’s a community in transition and we want to bring it together through the arts.”

This year’s event will take place on July 24. Shem said that the festival has been held at its Trout Lake location for 20 years and it’s time for a change. “Trout Lake was very different then,” he said. “It was a community in transition and now we want to give the Downtown Eastside a chance. It’s about building communities.”

Last year, the Public Dreams Society lost half of its funding in provincial budget cuts, said Shem. Now, with two employees at the society, organizing a 25,000-person event is no longer a realistic option, he said.

As the event has grown, so have expenses such as policing and security. The Trout Lake Community Centre, where many activities associated with the festival were held in the past, is also closed for deconstruction and rebuilding this summer.

As a result of these factors, Shem said the society is working to create new, smaller projects in different communities. “This probably would have still happened eventually [without the funding cuts],” Shem said. “The festival needed to evolve. It goes with anything that’s been happening for 20 years; you need to change it.”

The new Downtown Eastside venue has yet to be determined and Shem admits the move won’t be easy.

“It’ll be hard because the residents of Trout Lake feel like they are part of the festival and that they own it,” Shem said. “So it’ll be difficult to move, but it’s time to give another community a chance to feel that way too.”

Shem said the move doesn’t rule out the possibility of Public Dreams creating a new festival for the Trout Lake community in the future.

The organization’s other main event—Parade of Lost Souls—will still take place on Commercial Drive this October, Shem noted. “So we aren’t completely abandoning that area by any means,” Shem said.