Lanterns by the Lake

Last week I mentioned briefly a lantern parade that was held as part of Keswick’s Winter Week of Light.  The event began with a lantern parade from the centre of Keswick to the shores of Derwentwater and ended with a celebration of music and fire to welcome Spring.



Much of my weekend was spent helping the specialist pyrotechnic guys prepare for the firework display.  Rafts for the fireworks had to be built then transported and put in place at the foreshore.  We had no idea how many people would turn up - much depended on the weather.  On the day, it was dry and we stopped counting people at 1200.  We estimated there must have been 1600 or more who paraded from the centre of Keswick to the lake shore.  Lots of them were children carrying lanterns containing tea-lights.  They had been making those in workshops held by Naomi, who organised the event.  At the shore, music was provided by two choirs.  The children’s choir charmed us all with a spring song.  The finishing touch to the evening was a superb firework display set against the mountain sky-line and reflected in the lake.

Monday began with the dismantling of the rafts etc. and the general clearing up that you would expect after a large event.  Later in the week there was a bit more clearing to do at another site where people had lit a fire and probably enjoyed a little social event.  It’s a shame though that some people don’t leave sites as they would want to find them and there was some broken glass to be cleared.

I ended the week by going off to the NEC in Birmingham for a few days to take part in the Mountain Rescue National Display.  Nine representatives of five North Lakes teams demonstrated aerial rope-work.