It takes 15+ tractor-trailers to deliver materials for our visiting artisans to assemble this year’s 36 lantern groupings. Lanterns are designed exclusively for this event with materials shipped from China into the North Carolina Ports in Wilmington. It stands 21 feet high and weighs 18,000 pounds.įun fact: its head was installed by a crane with a 15-person crew!Įach lantern is created by hand on silk fabric stretched over steel frames and then lit with upwards of hundreds of LED. The spectacular Chinese Dragon floating on Symphony Lake is longer than three school buses at approximately 200 feet. Only the select communities of Seattle, Oakland, Oklahoma City, Little Rock, and suburban Orlando join Cary as hosts to Tianyu-produced Chinese lantern festivals during this holiday season. The North Carolina Chinese Lantern Festival is produced by Tianyu Arts & Culture, Inc., in cooperation with the Town of Cary. Our community is host to more than 25 Chinese artisans and performers who arrive in North Carolina in early November to hand assemble lanterns and prepare for exciting Chinese cultural performances during this annual celebration. Each year during Chinese New Year, families view colorful lanterns to symbolize respect and prosperity.
The ancient art of Chinese lantern making began in the Han Dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD), a significant period for science and innovation. North Carolina’s ‘must see’ event will not disappoint.” “We take seriously our commitment to awe and delight visitors year after year so, we have some extra special lanterns and performances planned for 2022. "Coming off the heels of record-breaking visitation last year topping 200,000, we know how ready and excited our community is to welcome the North Carolina Chinese Lantern Festival back to Koka Booth Amphitheatre,” said William Lewis, Town of Cary Cultural Arts Manager. These larger-than-life lanterns will captivate visitors with their amazing craftsmanship and artistic beauty. Cultural arts performances will take place each night on the main stage. The renderings have been approved and Chinese artisans are busy crafting more than 40 all new displays, each one comprised of hundreds of parts, and thousands of LED lights. With the success of the Asian Lantern Festival at the zoo, Dodds hopes to make the festival an annual event.The Triangle’s most spectacular holiday tradition is back! Cary’s Koka Booth Amphitheatre will once again serve as the home of the North Carolina Chinese Lantern Festival when it returns this winter for an 8 th year. There are daily and weekly craft games and activities, as well as entertainment activities all included with admission. Tickets for the event are $18 for adults and $16 for children ages 2-14. When the lanterns were finally in Tucson and getting set up at the zoo, the locations of the lanterns became problematic.ĭodds says the real animals also complicated things: one of their giraffes had problems with the penguin lanterns being on top of her enclosure’s roof and the lions wanted to play with the panda lanterns in front of their enclosure. That meant that zoo staff had less time to set up the show. The government shutdown earlier this year prevented some of the lanterns constructed in China from entering the port in Los Angeles. “These are all logistical things that we had to solve to be able to bring an event like this to the zoo.” “We had over 20 artisans from China that were out here handcrafting these things out in the front of the zoo outside, so I had to create a space that was safe for them to do all their work – getting their tools here, where are they staying, where do they eat, where do they cook,” Dodds said. Jed Dodds, event coordinator at Reid Park Zoo, says the lanterns were hand-designed over the course of eight months and constructed on-site by a team of 20 artisans. A Zen Garden, interactive floor lighting and Asian-inspired food are also a part of the experience at the festival.
Some of the notable lanterns include the Chinese Palace, Fish of Abundance display and 120-foot long, 35-foot tall dragon. There are 478 lanterns scattered throughout Reid Park Zoo, including 40 larger-than-life lanterns.
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