Toronto's Chinese Lantern Festival...
 

Went to check out the displays at Ontario Place last night and, as it was my first time, I was very impressed with the display - highly recomended if you want to spend an hour or two walking around. Here are some pics:

http://www.akrus.ca/images/lanterns/VW0001.JPG

http://www.akrus.ca/images/lanterns/VW0001_1.JPG

http://www.akrus.ca/images/lanterns/VW0001_2.JPG

http://www.akrus.ca/images/lanterns/VW0001_3.JPG

http://www.akrus.ca/images/lanterns/VW0001_4.JPG

http://www.akrus.ca/images/lanterns/VW0001_5.JPG

http://www.akrus.ca/images/lanterns/VW0001_6.JPG

http://www.akrus.ca/images/lanterns/VW0001_7.JPG

http://www.akrus.ca/images/lanterns/VW0001_8.JPG

http://www.akrus.ca/images/lanterns/VW0001_9.JPG

http://www.akrus.ca/images/lanterns/VW0001_10.JPG

It's not cheap at $20 for parking and $25/adult, but it does make for a nice night out, especially if you're at the CNE as well.

WOW... great pics:biggthumpup:

I went 2 years ago.. it's great

Wow, great pictures. That is truly a masterful display of art, creativity lighting etc.

Fantastic pics Albert, thanks for sharing.

If it wasn't a 3 hour drive for me I would be there in a flash to see that awesome display.

Thinking about checking it out...any good food there?

I hear they have some good Tex-Mex :icon17:

Thanks to everyone for the compliments, re: the pics - night photography can be challenging, but when done right, it's almost surreal.

As for your 3 hour drive, my friend... you know you have one sweet ride and I'd be looking for excuses to go for a cruise, LOL! Just make sure no one named Gilligan is on board :D

It's actually on until Oct 19, so there's plenty of time to catch it - maybe treat the wife to a weekend in the big smoke... there's so much to do there, I'd absolutely go nuts if I lived there.

As for the question, re: food, we didn't eat there so I can't speak for quality, but plenty of people seemed to be enjoying a mix of cuisine - Chinese being the main staple and Pizza Pizza supplying their products... Didn't really notice much else. Mind you, these were all small shack type things that were set up just for the festival - I believe there is a restaurant on site, but not certain. Personally, I'd just wander over to the entertainment district, get something good and then head to the show and walk it off with the cool night breeze.

It wasn't overly crowded and people were mostly respectful of the many photogs when trying to get a shot (they'd wait until you picked up your gear before stepping in the frame).

Again, as mentioned earlier, I think it was very worthwhile.

Thanks again for the pics. I showed them to Karen tonight and we are trying to figure out when or if we can go down to the display.
I hope you don't mind but I downloaded the pics and turned them into a Slide show and WOW do they look good going from one pic to the other with that black background and all of those fantastic colours.
I am sending them to a friend of ours who adopted two girls in China. I'm sure she would love to take them down there to see this.

Great Pics. Brought back some memories. We took the girls to it last year.

Wow, awesome pics and looks like an amazing show. Two thumbs-up!!! Think I'll have to go down with the family and check it out too.

That's awesome, thanks for sharing your pics akrus. You definitely did a great job with the night time photography.

Almost as cool as the ice sculptures in Harbin China during the spring festival every year, that is something I would really like to see but I can't get myself to book a trip in February to a place just as cold as home.

No problem - I'm honoured that you like them so much as to use them for your personal use. Let me know if you'd like the high res images (the ones posted in this thread are suitable for printing up to 5x7...)

Here is a link that a friend sent me, which has a brief history of what the lantern festival is all about:

http://www.chinavoc.com/festivals/lantern.htm

Wow those pics are awesome!

Har har. :p

But seriously, I'm just curious if there's decent food around during the festival, or if I should eat before going.