Quick question about night photography

[Cuchulain]

Hi folks, over the next few days there's a local "festival of lights" (http://www.lumiere-festival.com/derry-londonderry/) and I want to get a few photos, problem is a tripod is completely out of the question due to the crowds.

If I'm thinking correctly though I should be ok using a fast(ish) prime and 400/800 ISO hand held? I did try the stock lens but even with VR on it's awful in low light.

 

[Cuchulain]

Well that didn't go too well, got a couple of decent shots but the rest need shed loads of processing, seems I either exposed off of dark areas and blew out all the highlights or exposed off the lights themselves and everything else was black but it was pretty random, presumably due to using matrix metering.