Woke feeling super sleepy, wandered around Vancouver, checked out some of the shops, figured out what other clothes we need so we don’t freeze here, and was still super sleepy.
The evening we went to the lantern festival, which marks the Winter solstice. It started with a small group of people walking down the street, following a few guys playing instruments, drums and a saxaphone.
Was interesting, but didn’t seem that big a deal. We stopped in a park, ate pies and had a drink, then the marching line continued to the next park. Here there was a roped off area, and a whole pile more people were congregating. There, a group of fire dancers performed, with feats like a burning hula hoop, fire poi, and fire eating. It was a bit surreal, surrounded by the lights of the city, with fire and snow. You can’t see from the picture, but they had a post in the ground that was pretty much just embers, they must have lit it on fire earlier, and were using the embers now to light their poi.
Later on they had a lantern labyrinth, which was pretty cool, and a few other things going on: making light drawings with rice and stuff, and a planaterium, and a lot of artists doing performances throughout the night.
The final one we saw was a group of three people doing trippy music with a keyboard, guitar, drums, or a digeree doo. That room was all dark, with a crazy lit up balloon tree, and large lantern flowers. A bit trippy overall, but quite relaxing. People were just lying around enjoying the music.
Dale and Becca 