Walsall, October 14th
On Saturday members of the Birmingham Flickrmeets group ventured to Walsall to take photos of their world famous (possibly) Illuminations. I’d heard of this spectacle, what with it being world famous and all, but had never been before. As described it doesn’t sound like much – a park filled with somewhat tacky displays all lit up – but actually being there is something else, possibly magical, definitely out there. The tackiness is of such a degree that it transcends badness and is, quite simply, bloody great. I should also add that beyond the displays the park itself was quite tastefully lit. Or at least relatively tastefully. See for yourself.
Many photos were taken and a lot of them came out nicely. Here’s my set which has a lot of TTV but not exclusively (I took the tripod along too) and here’s the special group pool which, as usual, is already very full. If you don’t want to plough through the whole thing you can apply Flickr’s “interestingness” filter for those photos that have gathered the most attention already. All these things are probably best viewed as slideshows. Put on the cheeziest music you can find and you’re halfway there.
The Walsall Illuminations continue until October 29th and are, in my view, well worth attending at least once before you die. But be warned, they get very busy of a weekend.
(Interesting to note that Wikipedia briefly defines Illuminations as “secular Autumn festivals of electric light held in several English cities”. The secular part didn’t occur to me at the time, but they’re right. There was nothing religious about them at all. And that, in retrospect, is quite refreshing.)
As a Walsall-ish girl, going to ‘The Lights’ was a staple event on the calendar when I was growing up. The Shoe People were there for as long as I could remember, and grabbing a helium balloon and some tacky food was probably the highlight of the evening.
If that clown had been there when I was a kid, I’d have screamed the Arboretum down and been scarred for life.
I spent 7 years going to the school opposite the Arbo so as I grew up the ‘thrill’ disappeared. I do love the fact you’ve gone and taken photos of it, it’s got a lot of memories for me.
This year is, as far as I recall, the first time they haven’t had The Shoe People for many-a-year.
Did anyone see the ultra-violet puppet show in the tent at the end? I thought that was really good.
Clown is clown…