All photos by Laura Durenberger-Grunow 

By Laura Durenberger-Grunow - Boreal Community Media - June 19, 2023


The Good Harbor Hill Players celebrated the only constant in life - change - with the 2023 Summer Solstice Pageant titled 'The Winds Have Changed: The Scroll Must Go On!' on Saturday, June 17. 

Hundreds of community members and visitors came out to North House Folk School to watch the annual event, which gave a nod to the transition of the pageant to new hands. 

According to the Pageant program, "After 22 years of creating the Summer Solstice Pageant tradition and legacy, the show recently transitioned to new hands. The creativity, generosity, wisdom and vitality with which this show has taken root has planted seeds within each of us. We are honored to carry the scroll forward." 

The show consisted of 9-scenes, which followed the scroll of change through each season of the year. The pageant also acknowledged some of the more major events that have happened locally, including the wind storms this past winter, record snowfall, and BWCAW receiving the Wilderness Quiet Park Award. 

And of course, celebrating the daylight and the longest day of the year. 

 The annual Summer Solstice Pageant was held at North House Folk School

 Community Members gather, greet each other, and look for the perfect spot to sit before the show

 Spectators got to enjoy actors in the aisles throughout the performance

 Beavers, an animal known for creating a lot of change, started the show off with different antics 

Related: How beavers impact the northern boreal forest we in Cook County know and love

 More beaver antics 

 Announcing the official start of the show next to the band members

Bringing the scroll

 Bringing in the scroll

 

 

 The winds of change

 

 Fall was the first of the four seasons to be represented in the show

 Fall migration

 Winter

 

 Spring begins

 

 Campers enjoying different activities in the BWCAW

 After the campers head off to bed in their tent, the animals and insects (yes, of course mosquitos), come out to party!

 One of the campers even came out to join in on the fun

The animals and insects were reminded that the BWCAW is a Quiet Park...

 And were then treated to a beautiful display of northern lights 

 The northern lights over the audience

The scroll was finally revealed...to the delight of the beavers 

 The show ended with the new sun rising

 

 The new sun rises

 The end!

 The crowd gives the performers, backstage staff, and band a well-deserved standing ovation