Nevada – Rise Lantern Festival
We attended the Rise Lantern Festival to enjoy the magic of a couple hundred (or thousand?) people releasing lanterns into the night sky. It was pretty wild when lift-off of the lanterns happened, especially being being downwind of a very gentle breeze that had any lantern not fully warmed up slowly bounding for us. Very wild. But after their first lantern, everyone got a bit wiser and we could the magic of the sky filling up with little glowing and moving dots. Here, let’s get into it! (Note: I wrote this post based on my experience attending in 2018, so things may change in future iterations.)
Also, before we get into it, I did want to let you know that pre-sale tickets are on sale February 1 – 28, then regular tickets go on sale March 1st. Read though my post before deciding to go – I am not sponsored by Rise.
What is Rise Festival?
The Rise Lantern Festival, or Rise Festival, is a lantern release in the desert outside Las Vegas. It happens over two nights in early October. The website and images are very hip. You can arrive during the daylight to listen to not well-known bands and there are two scheduled lift-off times – 8:00 and 9:00 pm. There are food stalls and food trucks around the perimeter of the main circle.
The ticket price does not include parking or the shuttle transportation from Las Vegas. However, it does include your lanterns (2 per person – yay!), a bamboo mat, a pen, and an unassigned tiki torch. When you purchase tickets, you purchase into a section of a large circle. Since the gentle breeze is unpredictable, not one section is better than another. There is a lot of foot traffic at the entrance, but beyond that, you will get an amazing view no matter where you are.
At a Glance:
- Rating: 3 (out of 4) stars, would attend other lantern releases across the world.
- Intensity: Flats or low heeled sandals, blouse, with light sweater
- Location: Jean Dry Lake Bed
- Cost: $99 pre-sale, $119 regular, plus parking
- Restrooms: Portable restrooms located throughout the event area
- Timing: We were in the festival area for a little over 2 hours.
Highlights:
- Watching the lanterns disappear into small dots in the sky is beautiful
- Releasing the lanterns
- Helping other lanterns get started
Lowlights:
- Unable to bring food into the venue
- Slow, bounding fireballs that you must watch out for
Before Lift-Off
We arrived to the Jean Dry Lake Bed/Event Site after it was already dark. I had to fly in later in the day and Rebecca kindly picked up some vegan pizza for us to eat at the event. Excitedly, we skip to the entrance, where security told us that we could not bring in food. Okay… We take a quick trip to the car. After inhaling a slice of pizza, we try to enter a second time. This time, security tells us we cannot bring blankets into the event. Another trip to the car, during which we look at each other and ask how we both missed these details. The third time we get up to the entrance, we are able to enter without any issues. The staff check our tickets tells us to head to our section to pick up the lanterns.
In the parking lot, there are ton of floodlights and it is not that far from the freeway. I can see the event in the distance, but have trouble believing that it will be dark there. Low and behold, after the 5 minute walk from the entrance tent to the event site, it is much darker. Then, within the circle, the tiki torches are by far the brightest thing around.
It is getting close to the first lift-off, so we speed-walk over to our section’s lantern station. Rise did a great job with the lantern/mat packaging, with the pen attached to the mat, which protects the lanterns. We can have any spot available in the section. After walking a little deeper into the circle, we choose a spot. There were plenty of spots available, which was a relief. I think most couples and groups tend to group around one or two tiki torches to do the lanterns together, instead having a tiki per person.
Lift-Off
Since it was close to lift-off by the time we found a tiki torch, we didn’t yet unpack our lanterns and assumed we only had one lantern per person. We decided to watch the first lift-off and I am so glad we did. The weather was lovely and I didn’t notice any breeze while the people surrounding us began to light the fuel cell of their lanterns. A MC leads you through a series of directions at roughly 8:00 pm, which is super helpful. He repeated over and over how the lanterns need to warm up after the fuel cell is lit. Finally, he begins to count down and people join in.
Three… Two… One… Lift-Off. Everyone gently lets go of their lanterns begin to rise up, bringing light higher in the sky. It’s slow and beautiful. And it would not have the impact that it does without the hundreds of people doing it simultaneously.
We immediately began to notice the lanterns come in our direction due to a very gentle breeze. It was incredible to watch them fly over us, but there were also many others that did not have enough heat to lift them into the air. It was a bit scary to see these lanterns with lit fuel cells slowly float toward you. We helped many get back into the air or held onto others near the ground to reheat, then re-release. Rebecca and I would watch out for each other if we were taking pictures. A woman near us had the back of her hair burned due to a lantern. It was a bit wild. Some of the video I took during that initial lift-off is hilarious – you can hear me yelp as lanterns get close to people.
Our Own Lanterns
After the initial lift-off magic and chaos, we were ready to open our own lanterns. This is when we discovered that there were two lanterns per person, so we had four to play with. With two per person, people continuously lit lanterns until the second major lift-off and we joined in. I found it possible to do the lantern on your own, but it was much easier and fun with two people. We, as in all participants, collectively learned that the lanterns really needed to be warm before they could rise. Here is our method for success:
- Unpackage the lantern and unfurl it, so it is no longer folded
- Light the fuel cell over the tiki torch, which can take a few minutes
- Hold the bottom of the lanter with one hand and the top with the other for it to warm up a bit
- Optional: hold the bottom of the lantern near the ground to help the heat fill the lantern quicker
- The lantern will feel warm to the touch and/or have smoke coming out of the bottom when it is ready
- Lift lantern with arms extended, gently release
Even with all these steps, it was not always a perfect lift off. It could have been us, or it might be the nature of the lanterns. Rebecca and I did ours together, so it felt like we had four lanterns. We participated in the second lift-off, which didn’t quite have the same impact, but also didn’t have fire lanterns bounding toward us.
We didn’t have much time before the first lift-off due to our multiple trips to the car, so we didn’t have a chance to think about writing or drawing on the lanterns. But it was sweet to write something sentimental and see it rise into the sky. It was mesmerizing to watch the rising lanterns. The gentle breeze changed directions a few times, making a shifting lantern pattern in the sky.
Event Logistics
Looking around during the festival, there is so much that goes into something like this. Being on a dry lake bed in the middle of the desert, the event producers had to bring in all the lights, signs, stage, bathrooms, tents, fencing, etc. That’s not including all the staff that worked the event, fire personnel on site, traffic signs, police, and etc. It is a huge production.
I definitely thought $99, plus parking was a bit pricey for this festival when I bought the tickets. Especially because we couldn’t bring in food. We also had to get accommodations in Las Vegas, food, and transportation to get there. Although expensive, it is a lot less expensive than going to Thailand for their lantern festival. The fact that we had two lanterns per person definitely made the experience much better for the price.
The limited instructions on the website and emails was frustrating when it took three attempts for someone who means well to enter the festival. However, once there were bounding fireballs, I completely understood why they do not want people to be bringing additional items. The grounds were primarily clear, so it was easy to chase after a lantern. Since going to Rise Lantern Festival, I’ve heard of another lantern festival popping up in cities across the US called The Lights. It is much cheaper with more location options, but maybe not the same quality of event based on this review and this review. It would be interesting to The Lights, now that I’ve done the Rise Lantern Festival.
Getting to Rise Lantern Festival
If you buy tickets, you will receive instructions for how to get to Jean Dry Lake Bed. It is roughly 30 minutes outside of Las Vegas. Once you are off the freeway, there will be signs, cones, and police cars parked to help with traffic.
Getting into the parking lot and finding a parking spot was not difficult, especially with people waving you in. Leaving is a different story. The beauty of the lantern festival is having so many people release lanterns at the same time, so I don’t think it would be fair of me to complain about everyone trying to leave at the same time. Haha! Relax and have patience when leaving the event.
Overall Thoughts: Rise Lantern Festival
Because we had a few issues getting into the event and were running late, I went into the event with a bit of negativity. All that disappeared immediately during the lantern release. It was truly surreal and mesmerizing. Although more expensive than other lantern releases, I liked that Rise focused on sustainability, had visible fire personnel on site, and has done it in this location for many years. We were extremely lucky in 2018 because the next night was cancelled due to the wind and weather. From our experience having difficulty getting our lanterns to rise with a gentle breeze, there is no way it would be easy or safe with any real weather. This is something to consider when purchasing tickets.
Looking for other things to do in Vegas? Here’s what we did:
- Neon Museum of Las Vegas
- 7 Magic Mountains
- Tiki Bar – no post, but here is their website
Have you gone to a lantern festival before? In Thailand or somewhere else? Let me know in the comments so I can add them to my list. I definitely want to go to more, it is so much fun!
Happy Travels,
Hanna
