Magic Lantern Festival @ Chiswick House (2017)

One of last year's highlights was visiting the Magic Lantern Festival at Chiswick House (London) a week before Chinese New Year with friends. When they suggested we go again this year, we agreed and looked forward to catching up with them (as it has been a few months since we last saw each other) as well as seeing the Magic Lantern Festival again. Remembering how cold last year was, we dressed up warmly before heading on our way.

We noticed as soon as we arrived at Chiswick House that the set-up was different this year, and it was much busier; the trail was arranged in the opposite way and the food area was not at the entrance. We'd planned on getting food before the trail as we read that there would be more food vendors this year, but those plans changed when we saw that the food was not at the trail start. While walking around the trail, we noticed that the lanterns this year were mainly not the Chinese lanterns. Instead, they were strands of lights on frames, and the subjects of the lights were more westernised instead of Chinese. We also did not see any moving ones this year.

Overall, there were less lanterns than last year. Last year, so many lanterns were dotted along the trail, particularly all around the river's banks. The lanterns did come with a description this year, which was useful as I struggled to understand the meaning of many last year and had to ask our Chinese friend for translations and meanings of the symbols.

Although some of these were beautiful and we saw a few Chinese ones later on in the trail, we all felt a bit underwhelmed. We had hoped for more of the traditional Chinese lanterns that we saw last year. I believe that there are now three of these events around the UK, and the marketing was extended this year to generate more interest, so the organisers probably opted for more of a westernised event. It was still fun to do, but last year's Magic Lantern Festival was a lot better.

Below are some of my photographs on the trail.