Making the best of too much light in a low light situation

Sometimes all the preparedness and best intentions in the world are impacted by unexpected occurrences. I recently had one of these experiences when I went down to take photos of the moon at Hearson's cove, only to discover the annual Lantern walk for cancer was occurring. That's right, lanterns. And I was trying to take photos of the moon. It didn't turn out well let me tell you, but instead of packing up my gear and enjoying the atmosphere, (because it was actually a really top night - live music on the beach and the moon as bright as a dull sun) I decided to experiment.

I've seen a number of photos of millions of starts and I want to know how to take them without star trails. Of course, taking photos of stars with heaps of lanterns on the beach and a really bright full moon is not ideal. At all. Like I said, it was an experiment!

The results were below. First is the original Betsy version, and the next two have been edited in RAW. The hill was illuminated in the photos based on the amount of light was around and the colour looks a little odd so most of the correction in Adobe RAW was aimed at that, but I think I still need more training.

All these photos are the same photo that had a 31 second shutter, ISO 1000, f/3.6, at 18mm on Canon EOS 50D

The Orignial, Betsy version. Note the lanterns. This was an artistic choice as the lanterns represent support for those suffering from leukemia. Note also the unreal red hill. There were also a couple of people down the beach also experimenting I'd say, by making circles with their lanterns.

The second version - aimed at increasing, creating a midnight blue feel and reducing the redness of the hill. Unfortunately the people are now the incorrect colour. 

Third version and probably my favourite, except for the purple haze over the people I suppose. Manipulating colours in Photoshop RAW is hard!