Christmas Lights

It’s launch day of this year’s Kendal Mountain Festival and, once again, it has been tied in to the switch on of Kendal’s Christmas Lights.
Last year, the council said they wouldn’t/couldn’t pay for the switch on of the lights so KMF stepped in to organise something. There was a parade to Market Place where we watched a tightrope walker before the lights were switched on. All slightly haphazard but there was a definite good natured air to everything.
This year KMF were involved from the get go and though the format was similar - parade followed by activities in Market Place - it all felt a bit “corporate”, with the obvious aim of drumming up attendance at the Festival. We actually went home before the official lights switch on because it was very busy and we couldn’t see anything that was happening on the stage.
I have mixed feelings about this year’s lights switch on. Yes, it’s nice to see lots of people turn out for a community event, but - to my eye anyway - I felt I was attending a corporate sales pitch.
But perhaps I just have an over-romanticised idea of what Christmas in a provincial market town should be like…