Rain backdrop for floating lanterns

By Emma Sun
THE rain put a dampener on the Lynbrook Residents Association’s Lantern Festival recently, but attendance was still high despite the horrendous weather.
More than 200 locals braved the conditions and refused to let the situation rain on their parade.
Organiser and member of the Lynbrook Residents Association Vanessa Watson said the rain poured so much that night that they almost cancelled the event.
“We nearly cancelled the event, but our jumping castle people said there would be no refund,” she said.
“In the end, we still got over 200 people in the rain, I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like had we had good weather – we might’ve had at least 800 as an estimate!”
The rain played a good backdrop to the 200 floating lanterns that were placed on the lake, but it also meant people couldn’t release as many flying lanterns.
“Due to the rain, we only let off about seven flying lanterns, though we would’ve let off hundreds,” Ms Watson said.
She said there were definite plans to re-run the event.
“We just had really bad luck, but we had some brave souls and overall we’re pleased we did go ahead with it because it would’ve been awful to cancel. We are planning to do the lanterns again, we’re aiming to make it a yearly event.”