Like every September, the end of summer was celebrated with the Light Walks in Tallinn last Thursday, 17 September at Kadriorg Park, featuring music and of course, light. Although the park is huge, thousands of people attended the event during the evening, up until midnight when the last buses and trams crossed the city. The candles, torches and series of tiny bulbs resembling Christmas lights that covered the whole area made the place feel cozy, inviting and intimate. Just the right atmosphere for saying goodbye to the warmest season.
Even though the event started at 19.00 and included a few concerts and dance performances by Estonian artists, one of the most enjoyable activities there was just strolling around after the night set in, when thousands of candles and torches placed all over the park were virtually the only sources of light, and watch all of the families and groups of friends gathered around beautifully decorated wooden tables, sitting on the grass surrounded by dimly lit trees or taking photos inside passages fully decorated with tiny lights.
Perhaps the most photogenic area of the park was the Swan Pond, where there was an installation consisting of mesmerizing music and various sets of reflectors with different colors located on the rotunda in the middle of the Pond. The reflectors slowly moved around so that they illuminated the trees surrounding the water. This made for a relaxing and beautiful view that was enjoyed by hundreds of people who took advantage of the unusually warm weather and sat down around the Pond for a while, until they moved on to the next area of the park to be admired.
The water channels of the park were also decorated with hundreds of white balloons which had a tiny light inside. That not only made them look great, but also gave the balloons enough weight to float softly on the surface of the water. They looked so beautiful and there were so many, that a lot of people couldn’t resist the temptation of grabbing a balloon as it passed below a bridge and take it with them. So, the flow of these white balls of light didn’t end at the park, but instead continued on the streets as people left the area and walked home carrying their balloons and playing with them.
At the Flower Garden, the intricate shapes of the flowerbeds were highlighted by candles placed on the outlines of every flower bed, making the whole area look like a bohemian’s dream. The warm light of the candles, the beauty of the garden itself and the people wandering around and enjoying the place made for an incredibly inviting atmosphere.
It was also at the Flower Garden where the event concluded with colorful fireworks that illuminated the sky for several minutes. Mums pushed their strollers as fast as they could and hurried their kids to get a closer look at them and even people who were already on their way out of the park ran back inside to enjoy the fireworks. The event, like the summer, had ended, but at least we had a blast saying goodbye.
