Poznań Goes for the Record (9 pictures)

In addition to the Euro 2012 football (soccer) tournament that is partially taking place in Poznań, the city also decided to go for the world record in paper lantern launches tonight.  It rained pretty much all day and was massively overcast, so I forgot about it.  Luckily I glanced out my window at home tonight and saw the mass of lights in the sky and decided to grab my camera and try and take some pictures.

Fair warning, it was CROWDED and my camera is not exceptional in low light, especially hand-held, so please don't judge these too harshly.  (And yes, I did bring a tripod, there was no where to set it up, the crowds were just too thick).  :)

Don't forget that you can click on an image to see a larger version.  And don't forget to click the link below to see the rest of the pictures.

Enjoy!

These are the lanterns that were being launched.  There were red, white, green, and blue ones that I saw.

This was my favorite picture of the ones I took.  I wish it was a bit sharper and the focus was better, but it's still cool I think.

The was focused around this bridge over the Warta river, which is just up from my apartment a ways.

This is the crowd on the bridge.  It was just as bad even on the small paths along the river.  There were a LOT of people out.

It's a simple formula, light the taper, let the air inside get hot enough, release when it starts floating.

There were stands down by the river itself.  I didn't even try to go down because it was so massively crowded.

These guys were off to the side where I could try and get a picture of just them.

I liked the effect of the light here.  The way it's completely dark except right around them.

 The final result was a giant mass of these lanterns flying away in the night. The had to shut down flights to the airport because the approach goes right through this area.

  

Well, that's the end of the pictures.  I hope you enjoyed them!