The annual bonfire display at Alexandra Palace was once dubbed the “Glastonbury of Fireworks”.
It is undoubtedly a tough moniker to live up to, with visitors expecting a similarly grand spectacle at just a fraction of the price.
Set across almost 200 acres, the sprawling site has plenty of space – and organisers made every use of it during the two-night event (November 3 to 4).
Describing the weekend as Ally Pally’s Fireworks Festival is in many ways a misnomer.
The large bonfire and colourful fireworks display are of course recognisable elements of any good Guy Fawkes celebration.
But depending on which part of the site you visit, you could easily have believed you were at a German beer festival, a funfair, an outdoor club, or an ice skating venue.
When they say – “there’s something for everyone” – they really do mean it; there was even a two-part drag set sandwiching the main event on Friday night.
At the start of the evening, it can take a moment to get your bearings. Just after the entrance on the Muswell Hill side, visitors can choose to either turn left up a path towards the palace or turn right and wander further down into the park.
Uphill takes you to the German Bier Festival and ice rink (both of which cost more to enter than the standard ticket price) as well as towards a live music area and street food village.
At the end of the other path, you find a funfair, food and drinks stalls, the bonfire and the ‘Café de Pally’ tent, which hosted a drag takeover by The Glory, a gay pub in Haggerston.
Also here, fanning out over the light of the bonfire, were dozens of green and blue laser beams, just in case explosions and flames failed to provide enough visual entertainment.
The fireworks show on Friday night dazzled with sparkling rocket after sparkling rocket – illuminating the sky with flashes of gold and silver.
Upbeat pop tunes provided the display’s backing track, with musical crescendos timed for the loudest bangs.
But the real musical treat of the festival came after the final explosion, as the haze drifted out into the night.
Although the crowds had begun to dissipate, those who remained pressed into the Café de Pally tent for the final act.
An hour-long drag show followed, with performers lip-synching to the likes of Frank Sinatra’s Can’t Take My Eyes Off You and Erasure’s A Little Respect.
Club classics by Britney Spears and Cher thumped late into the evening until temperatures in the tent felt much less autumnal than they had at the start.
But by 10.30pm it was time for everyone to make their way to the exit, with the last few stragglers sliding their way across the now-trampled grass; after all, it wouldn’t be Glastonbury without a bit of mud.
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