11 March 2012

Enlighten gets it really right

| johnboy
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enlighten

Reasons why Enlighten last night was the best place to be:

    — A warm clear night,
    — a gibbous moon,
    — beautiful architecture transformed into gargantuan artistic canvasses,
    — A bar selling Little Creatures Bright Ale at $7 a cup,
    — Great music (fortunately with no one paying attention to Fun Machine’s lyrics)
    — Saucy puppet show at Questacon
    — Huge happy crowds in the normally desolate parkland surrounding the national institutions
    — Eight foot tall insects
    — Some really great food vendors
    — All for free (OK you had to pay for food and beer)

I hear the lights will still be on tonight if you haven’t checked it out yet, but not the other entertainments.

If it’s on next year you’ll be wanting to clear your schedule for it.

Here’s a slideshow of pics we’ve had sent in from readers with a great slab of them thanks to SlappMonkey.

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Disinformation said :

A few nights later, the Bat Signal was back. They’d taken a boat out into the Harbour and put it up again on a hugely long stick.

That is SO awesome.

Disinformation8:14 pm 12 Mar 12

I was standing talking to a photographer when out of the blue, another guy started talking to us in regards to our comments of the projections. It turns out that he was working for the mob who does it. Apparently the rain took out quite a few of the components, but they soldiered on. I mentioned that if the projector was lower, I’d do the rabbit hand shadow. He then told me of one time when they were projecting onto the Sydney Opera house. All of a sudden, the Bat Signal appeared on it. Some kids had made a one out of cardboard and had it in front of the projector on a stick. A security guard went down and shooed them away. A few nights later, the Bat Signal was back. They’d taken a boat out into the Harbour and put it up again on a hugely long stick. He said for the effort taken, he had to pay that one..

Another great thing was that it appealed to children as well without patronising them with bad music and ugly furry animal suits. Adults and children could both enjoy the magic of the lights and there wasn’t a Wiggle in sight. One sophisticated child thought that some of the music was too ‘country’ though. A critic in the making…

Fri night from about 11.30pm was superb. Not many people so could get great shots and very pleasant weather.

kean van choc said :

Also agree. We went Friday night and had a ball. Lanie Lane was fabulous; she totally sassed it up for the crowd. And the whole area and vibe, unlike last year, was just so right. It was just a shame there weren’t more people.

I really think that linking all these events under the ‘Enlighten’ banner has huge potential.

They just have to keep building off this base. Apart from the fact that much of Canberra had fled the city on Friday, we really did have an embarrassment of riches of things to do on Friday night. Which is a kind of sort of good problem to have. Sort of.

kean van choc5:56 pm 11 Mar 12

Also agree. We went Friday night and had a ball. Lanie Lane was fabulous; she totally sassed it up for the crowd. And the whole area and vibe, unlike last year, was just so right. It was just a shame there weren’t more people.

I really think that linking all these events under the ‘Enlighten’ banner has huge potential.

CrocodileGandhi said :

Agreed. It was excellent last night. I think my highlight was seeing Shane Rattenbury bust a few moves at the silent disco.

That and he was kitted out like Mel Gibson in mad max… very un-Greens like.

CrocodileGandhi3:09 pm 11 Mar 12

Agreed. It was excellent last night. I think my highlight was seeing Shane Rattenbury bust a few moves at the silent disco.

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