Although we have already entered September, with summer holidays over and kindergarten’s second trimester having started, autumn is still nowhere in sight. It has been hot hot and this weekend when it was time for this year’s summer festival in the nearby park, was no exception. My son has been looking forward to this festival all summer, and if I should dare to make an attempt to an explanation as to why, I would say that is the fun in running around in the twilight with lots of other kids, playing with a plastic toy that blinks and shines and will be broken before the evening is over.
It has become a summer tradition to visit the local summer festival and the flow of events has become like a well known family ritual to celebrate the end of summer and look forward to hopefully cooler days. We arrive and start the evening sweating, queuing in the sun to not miss out on the yakisoba that is being fried as people are waiting – cheap and tasty so quick to sell out. Next we pick up a couple of cold drinks and our son gets to try his luck in the ”fishing pond”. This year it was a bit different than previous years’ paper scope that brakes if you are not skilled at handling it – this year the scope was a metal skimmer that my son used to scope up a pile of jelly. But he was happy and we moved to our picknick blanket where we had the yakisoba followed by shaved ice, while listening to and looking at performances on the stage. A few entertainers as well as different groups from the local community center performed – hula dance, drums, balloon art, singing. Our son was looking for friends to run around with and as it got darker I got to chase him across the park before we ended up back on the blanket finishing what was left of the now melted shaved ice.
The evening always closes with a lottery for all the families living nearby. This year we did not win anything, but previous years we have won both beers and a gift card from a butcher’s shop. Although just being there is a win for our son, and for his parents to see his happiness – that is the price that really counts I think. And we did not even reach our house before our son started to talk about next year, surely we will go to the festival next year too, right mummy, right dad, right? Of course we will.
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