Machynlleth Lantern Parade and Fireworks 2016

Saturday was a rare day with all of us at home with nothing really on the agenda. Morgan and I started it with an early morning walk in the dark. We went over to the beach, along the pebbles, through the dunes, up to the viewpoint, down to the visitor centre and then back home. I then jumped on the turbo trainer for 90 minutes for a bit of exercise. Next up it was time to clean and service my bikes and then do some gardening. The courgette plants were still just about producing but now they are composting and the raised bed has been replenished with new compost. It was then some chores around the house before we headed off for the annual Machynlleth Lantern Parade and Fireworks.

Haunted Hides Souvenir

Haunted Hides Souvenir

We weren’t taking part this year. We thought we’d have a year off and watch it ourselves and maybe enter a lantern into the Aberystwyth procession instead at Christmas. We got to Machynlleth early as we also wanted to find a geocache. There was a new geocaching souvenir up for grabs called ‘Haunted Hides’. To gain it we had to find a geocache between October 29th and 31st. We parked at Tuffins, wandered to the nearby cache, found it straight away and then had some time to kill. We did get the souvenir as well of course.

We then parked in Machynlleth and wandered through the town. We popped into Losin Lush to get tickets for the fireworks and a bag of sweets each. Whilst wasting time we battled a couple of Pokémon gyms and waited for the procession to begin.

Lantern Parade

We didn’t have too long to wait and soon the lanterns were upon us. For some reason they all came along in one large bunch today rather than being strung out in a long procession. This meant that we didn’t really get to see them all individually and it was all over in no time at all. I’m not sure why they chose to do it like that this year, especially as it was such a nice evening for it. Warm, dry and windless – perfect for a lantern parade.

We made our way to the entrance to the fireworks and watched the lanterns pass by once again and then took up our place in the field ready for the fireworks.

Fireworks

Before the fireworks there was a bit of a light show which was something new. It looked quite good but nowhere near as good as the fireworks which as usual went off with a bang. There were quite a few bats flying around above the lanterns and at one point a duck flew across the field, illuminated by fireworks as it went.

It was a still night too so the smoke hung thick in the air and by the end it was almost obscuring some of the lower fireworks. It still looked good though as the bright lights of the fireworks lit up the smoke. Once it was over, we walked back into Machynlleth where Anna got some chips with gravy from the fish and chip shop and Morgan and I went to the Kebab shop where we ordered a small pizza for Morgan and a Doner Kebab for me. Half an hour later and we still didn’t have our food – I think they’d forgotten about us so we had to ask again and eventually got fed!

Another nice evening out in Machynlleth with a geocache found, a souvenir gained, a lantern parade, a light show, fireworks and takeaways. Perfect.

Tags: FireworksLantern ParadeMachynlleth