Downtown Batavia will be the stage for The Showgirl Lantern Walk from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday which will feature a Taylor Swift theme.
The event marks the second Lantern Walk in downtown Batavia, which was offered for the first time a year ago. This year’s event will feature a Taylor Swift-themed evening that organizers said would including “lighting up the downtown with lanterns, local shopping and a special Taylor Swift lyric scavenger hunt” that will include chances to win raffle baskets containing merchandise from participating merchants.
Kristen Desler, assistant director of the Batavia MainStreet group, said the event has been jointly organized through the business organization and two local businesses, Arlo.Hendrix, a children’s and baby boutique, and Seapeak Style, a women’s clothing boutique.
“This is not a Batavia MainStreet event, per se, but something we sponsor and help promote for them,” Desler said. “They put together the Lantern Walk this year and the theme is The Showgirl Lantern Walk because it is the same day that Taylor Swift’s new album (The Life of a Showgirl) is being released.”
The evening, Desler added, will include “music, shopping and overall the community and people coming out to experience the beauty of downtown Batavia.”
“We have a promotion committee who helps to sponsor these merchant-led events and we encourage merchants to collaborate and be the host to take the labor off us us, but we can then give some funding to help with the promotion of these events, so it really is a collaborative effort,” she said. “We’re happy to support businesses in this way.”
Brittany Sabatino, owner of Arlo.Hendrix, said this is her second year organizing the Lantern Walk and is “something we’ve done to really bring the community together.”
“For me, that’s always been the foundation of the business and this year with Taylor Swift releasing her 12th album, we thought why not make it a little extra fun and have it be tailored around that Swiftie event and have things for everyone,” said Sabatino, who lives in Batavia herself. “Whether it’s a family or ladies’ night out there’s something for everyone.”
Sabatino said she reached out to fellow business Seapeak “as we are both located inside the Wilson Street Mercantile,” a facility at 222 E. Wilson St. in Batavia that offers four boutiques under one roof.
“I asked about planning and organizing the event because last year was a lot of work and I needed an extra hand,” Sabatino said of reaching out to Seapeak Style. “I wanted to do this again. Last year, we really didn’t know what to expect. It was the community and the way they responded to it that was so heartwarming. We had so many people tell us this was such a lovely way to get out with their family and felt it was an escape from the everyday and enjoy Batavia.”
Desler promises there will be glowing lanterns all around downtown thanks to “a team of volunteers that puts them out.”
“It’s a really great way to explore the downtown and discovering new businesses by following that lantern trail,” she said. “That was one of our favorite things about the event last year so that will continue. A lot of the shops and restaurants will have special features throughout the night, whether that’s drink specials or live music or different things of that nature as well as the lyric scavenger hunt.”
Desler said for those who know Taylor Swift’s music catalogue and lyrics, “there will be lyric clues hidden throughout downtown.”
“If guests complete their scavenger hunt card, then there are raffle baskets that will be given away with prizes donated by the merchants,” she said. “As far as the Taylor Swift connection, the businesses hosting the event are big Swifties themselves and we’re very excited about this album release. We’ve seen a lot of Taylor Swift events or tributes at other communities and park districts and we know that this is something that people like to come for, whether you like her or not.”
For more information about the walk as well as the more than 20 stores participating, go to https://downtownbatavia.com/event/lantern-walk
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.