Fort Wayne's Water Lantern Festival

This past month, I finally got to see my first water lantern festival. Set up by the Water Lantern Festival, they coordinate these events all over the country! I was surprised how crowded the event was with live music, vendors and a dozen food trucks (including one from Shark Tank: Wicked Good Cupcakes). 

Food Tangent: I mean, how could I NOT try new food, particularly food that made it to Shark Tank? While the packaging was small, the cupcake was tasty! I tried the blueberry lemon blend and it was oh, so refreshing!

But, I digress. I wasn’t here for the food, I was here for the lanterns. And what a show it was! The main event featured at least a thousand lanterns. Each individual lantern was hand drawn with a message from their creator. Some messages were sweet, others were drawings or patterns, others boasted terrible puns or jokes that made people laugh or smile as the lanterns passed by… Anyway, you get the idea.

It was a mesmerizing experience to wander around the lake at Ivan Lebamoff Reservoir Park as the wind pulled the lanterns in clusters. It was a particular challenge, given how dark it was, to capture clean and sharp shots without too much noise and without falling into the water. Never fear, no cameras were harmed during this adventure, and no one fell in either (at least not that I got to witness). Without further ado, here are some of my favorite shots!

Crowd of lanterns

People watch in awe

Detail of cluster

Heart!

Wind pulling them all together

Detail of group

Right on the edge of the pond

Earlier before it got super dark

Artwork everywhere!

Largest cluster we saw