The prairie is no longer empty with only flowers and grass to break up the horizon. Now, a large mass that looks a little like a maze - created by no less than ten different architects - towers higher than any of the hills. Parts of the maze are made of rows upon rows of perfectly sculpted hedges, while another side glints like glass and reflects back the world like the most flawless of mirrors. There’s a part of it that is made out of sunflowers, thick and dark-stemmed with petals brighter than the sun. Everything about the changed prairie is as lovely as it is mysterious.

It’s almost impossible to think that this lake was once a battleground. The shoreline glitters only with rounded stones, fireflies and a few candles lighting the way towards the tents of a tattoo artist, a jeweler and another artist that looks a little creepy and a little wonderful. But when you turn a corner, it’s the lake that catches the eye, for all the grass and stone is gone and there is a pathway made of gold and wood lined in strange pearls that glow like moonstones. The pathway leads down into the still waters, and it looks almost like it could be either a trick of the eye or the start of a wild dream.

The pathway looks nothing like it used to. Gone is the feeling of danger and loneliness; there are no walls or sentries to mark the way this summer. Fairy lights and fires light the way and gardens are twined between the trees like snakes. Strange paintings and sculptures are tucked away; some hide in the darkest corners of the past and only the most adventurous could possibly find them. Others lounge under firelight and fairy light and these works of art seem to whisper, ‘look at me, look and wonder what secrets my colors and my gold-dusted edges have’. Will you linger here just a little before winding downward to the other mysteries this festival holds?

The Night Markets are a riot of color, a riot of light, no matter whether they’re banners and stands illuminated by the sunlight or by the colored paper lamps that glow like rainbow stars come to earth once the sun goes down. Even so it is a little like a maze, if only because there is so much to do... and if your heart desires anything at all, it is likely here.