Demystified: Ayala Triangle Gardens' Lights and Sound Show

Recently, people are trekking to the latest place-to-be-and-post-on-Facebook event: the "Symphony of Lights and Sounds" at the Ayala Triangle Gardens. Sounds intriguing: colorful lights dancing to the music, or some sort of an Avatar-esque experience in the middle of the metropolis at night, surrounded by curtains of sparkling, blinking lights...like magic.

So when the family decided to have dinner out, we agreed to go to Ayala so we could also check out the Symphony for a taste of entertainment and photography and not as part of the Christmas season, simply because we do not celebrate Christmas (click here if you're curious to know why).

The lights and sounds show comes to life every 30 minutes beginning 6 in the evening and ends at 9 every day until December 30th, 2011. When we arrived at the gardens a little before 7pm, the place was already crowded; adults and children waiting in the dark under the canopy of trees, chatting, snacking, or waiting quietly with their cameras, the soft Christmas lights illuminating their faces. A little further down the gardens, cafes and restaurants were packed with holiday shoppers, going in and out of Banapple, Amici, Wee Nam Kee, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, etc.

I was nauseous from the ride to the place, and my mother and I crossed the street to 7.eleven to buy some salty snacks, and when we came back, the show has just begun. Lights going up and down, mixed with colorful parols, changing colors, blinking to the beats of familiar Christmas jingles. Whenever the whole place lit up, a grand, generous display of lights, the crowd ooohhed and aaaahed and snapped photos.

I was bored with the show. And since I'm unaffected by the festive air, I simply thought the lights were pretty and nothing more, amusing but not spectacular, a minimally delightful sight providing zero emotional effect.

I guess that's why it's free...it's something that is worth your few minutes if you're within the area.