Guy Fawkes day in Battersea Park is an elaborate theatrical experience with many acts. Fighting the crowds to get in, watching teenagers attempting to sneak in, a massive bon fire, and fireworks. It was a crazy, confusing, awesome night and well worth the long tube ride for the very British experience of burning an effigy.
Walking to the park involved very long ticket lines and fighting through mobs of people. If you are claustrophobic this is not the Guy Fawkes venue for you. From start to finish you are in massive crowds that slowly make their way towards the park. A large amount of these people are young and drunk, which makes for a loud rowdy bunch. Once the line through the park path opens up to the large open field where the event takes place you see thousands of people and the compactness is only slightly lessened. If you lose your friends the odds of ever finding them are not good.
To escape some of the crowds I headed over to a wooded area opposite of where I entered the park and to my surprise saw something very funny. Teenagers hopping a short fence and running as fast as they could to the massive mob of people while security guards chase after them. Some were tackled and dragged off to the police tent while others were able to escape the police by becoming a part of the crowd.
When the bonfire began everyone let out a loud shout of approval. The massive fire heated and lit up the entire park. As the Guy Fawkes effigy burned the celebration continued to increase in crazy drunken celebrations. Loud music was played on giant speakers to increase the party atmosphere. People danced to American, hip-hop songs with their friends in front of the fire, like a giant Native American pow-wow. The three bar stands were being over run with desperate Brits in need of intoxication so that they could properly enjoy their holiday, causing the bar lines to become longer then the line for space mountain at Disney land.
The highlight of the night was the firework show at the end. Everyone stopped talking, walking, and acting belligerent and just starred at the sky for about 15 minutes. The massive fireworks display took place to popular music such as the song Fireflies by Owl City. As the fireworks were being set off four giant fire blowers were shooting fire into the sky, resembling the kind of special effects often used at rock shows. The fireworks themselves were massive and impressive, their vibrant colors lit up the entire sky, sparkling, blasting, and spinning. When the firework show finally ended everyone cheered and I like to think that they felt pride for their amazing country.
This British holiday at Battersea park is definitely a big production that had a lot of money, time, and effort put into planning to make Guy Fawkes night, a night to remember for everyone at the event. It may have cost me 10 pounds to get in, and was way too crowed but this memorable experience will always be with me and felt truly British.
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