A Weekend of Asian Festivals

The Sunday before uni started was Asian Festival day! During the day was the Japan Festival at the ASB Showgrounds, while the Lantern Festival which had been running all weekend was to conclude that night.

After church, we (minus Aonghas who had to work) went to the Japan Festival. It wasn't too big. There were a few food stalls, and art displays, as well as some very nice motor vehicles! There was also a stage but when we were there it was mainly just martial arts.

 

While I momentarily lost my family, I caught up with Grace from my youth group! We talked for a while before she had to go rejoin her parents.

 

We didn't stay for much longer, before we decided to go to the Lantern Festival a little earlier than planned. We parked all the way in Parnell and walked to Albert Park. That's what you get for getting a free car park!

 

We wandered around the park checking out the lanterns, even though they weren't turned on. There were quite a few new lanterns this year! There was a whole stretch of lanterns related to wildlife,

 

and the fountain had two dragons with moving heads! There was also this giant lantern with Asian food! 

 

The lanterns that are there every year such as the insect band

 

and the masks hanging from the trees were there once again.

 

After checking out the stalls and the lanterns, we sat down to watch the dragon dance when Aonghas joined us. We had a bit of a feed before we headed over to the main stage, where we would remain for the rest of the night.

 

There were a few quite entertaining performances that night, including a Mongolian band which performed a few 'drinking songs' which were quite catchy and got the audience clapping to the beat. They mixed modern instruments with traditional Mongolian musical instruments.

 

There was also this other Chinese group who played traditional Chinese musical instruments but played music that sounded quite contemporary and was really catchy! 

 

Some of the local performances included some girls singing, dancing, and a few of the other overseas performances included this group who did some dancing with these really cool lanterns which glow!

 

We saw some of the performances more than once during the night but they were still cool nonetheless!

Finally the fireworks were lit as the grand finale! What was quite a shame was the fact that the stage actually obstructed the view of some of the fireworks for most of us who had been sitting in front of the stage!

 

Once the fireworks were over and everyone made their way out of the park, we took the opportunity to take some last minute pictures!