Guy Fawkes Night

Burnley was out in force, and I mean force. I believe the capacity was 5000 and I think they hit it and then some. We had tickets including parking in the nearest car park to the fireworks and after a short walk, various hi-vis clad steward checks and a tango with the barriers we were in a fairground area on hard standing. This was busy and bustling, full of dry ice and strobing lasers, thumping dance music and screaming kids being flung around the waltzers. Is it only me who can never walk through a place like this without thinking of Dire Straits 'Tunnel of Love'?! Into the field adjacent to the firework setting, we met such a scrum of people, children and buggies and not to mention mud underfoot that it was impossible to go much further. I blessed the rucksack carrier George was in, trying to keep his hand or push the pram would have been horrible. We stood a while then went back over the bridge into the fairground, more people, more lights and sounds, George coped admirably; sitting merrily in his perch looking this way and that. Then the rain came down and we tried to hop from place to place for cover, finally sheltering next to the dodgems. I used to love going on this ride. My Dad took me often to the space themed bumpers on St Anne's pier as kid, the sounds and smell took me back there and I was five again. The rain had stopped now, but we soon discovered George had reached his zenith in the perch, shivering through four layers and desperate for freedom. Jon took him back to the car to watch in the warmth while I queued for coffee with Sharon. The music by the bonfire played Burn Baby Burn and we giggling and bobbed and It felt like the old uni days. Our feet in the mud the fireworks began, small at first then higher and louder and bigger and brighter. Some i'd never seen before, like catherine wheels in the sky, spinning off again and again. [Do they invent new fireworks Shaz? I mean is there a man in a lab somewhere making these?] by the time the biggest hit the sky we were back on the path and heading for the exit. Finding the best vantage point of the night outside the pay zone on the path amongst many other families. I got two decent shots, the rest, a mass of blurred light and strobed fire due to shaking hands and slow shutter speed. Then there was Jon and George and we were back in the car park again.