Festival Lights Seen from Space
By William Helms
Here we take a look at a couple large festivals that are remote enough to become their own visible light source. Paradiso is a festival usually held in mid-June at the Gorge Amphitheatre in the state of Washington. Due to Washington’s notoriously rainy weather, it can be difficult to get a clear, cloudless sky. The top left portion of the image above shows the Gorge Amphitheatre area during the weekend of Paradiso, specifically June 15. It took another ten days to get a good light image for the area, but it shows the Gorge Amphitheatre area has all but disappeared. For comparison, the nearby city of Quincy (population around 8,000) is shown.
Another remote festival is Electric Forest. The right side of the image above shows it earns its name. The festival takes place at a resort in Rothbury, Michigan not too far from Lake Michigan. As displayed in the image from July 1, the festival does indeed light up the forest. The July 6 image shows the normal lighting levels for the area. Fremont, Michigan is a nearby city that has a population of over 4,000 for comparison.