Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM DECEMBER 28, 2022 - JANUARY 3, 2023 UCW 15 EVENT Festival showcases beauty, history of Chinese lanterns by JASON BRADY, CityView Today For seven holiday seasons, the town of Cary has given residents and out-of-town visitors alike one of the most enchanting and memorable festivals imaginable. e annual Chinese Lantern Festival in Koka Booth Amphi- theatre just off Regency Parkway brings in thousands of spectators from throughout North Carolina. is year, the festival opened Nov. 18 and runs through Jan. 8. Visitors can view life-size and larger lantern displays with hun- dreds of parts and thousands of LED lights. Many of the animal lantern displays are animated; some are interactive. First, visitors walk through a tunnel of multicolored lighted fish lanterns, arriving at a large para- keet display. From there, lantern displays are in the shapes of a variety of birds, dragonflies, Panda bears, dino- saurs, and traditional Chinese architecture. Some displays are built on plat- forms on Symphony Lake, making them more spectacular because of the reflections in the water. It takes about an hour to walk the pathways bordering the dis- plays. is year, 40 displays were added, according to event orga- nizers. Gates open at 6 nightly and close at 10 p.m. Tickets range from $11 to $36, depending on the date and time. For example, there are "any time" tickets for those who want to have the flexibility of when to attend or if they are given as gifts. "Golden hour" tickets give ac- cess to the festival about 90 min- utes before the gates open to the public. Golden hour tickets are for those who want to photograph the festival at dusk. ere are also group rates, and an educational tour offers insight into how the lanterns are made and the history of the festival. To purchase tickets or for more information, go to the Koka Booth Amphitheatre website www.boo- thamphitheatre.com/. Food trucks and booths are scattered throughout the venue. e festival includes nightly per- formances by jugglers, acrobats, and traditional Chinese dancers. e festival was started in 2015, and although it's in its seventh season, organizers took 2020 off because of the COVID pandemic, according to William Lewis, the town of Cary's cultural arts man- ager. Lewis said Tiyanu Arts & Cul- ture approached the town about the festival based on the town's reputation for quality facilities and diversity in arts and culture programming. Tianyu is the largest Chinese lantern festival producer in North America and one of the first com- panies to bring authentic tradi- tions of the lanterns to the U.S. and Europe, according to its web- site. e U.S.-based corporation is a subsidiary of Sichuan Tianyu Culture Communication Co., which is headquartered in Zigong in China's Sichuan province. "After touring other potential sites throughout North Carolina, they selected Koka Booth Am- phitheatre because of its overall beauty and amenities," Lewis said in an email. "e amenities include dedi- cated staff at the facility, ample parking, a full-service box office, professional-grade staging and in- house production, concessions, restrooms, a spacious lawn, and a covered deck. Plus, an adjacent greenway, Symphony Lake, and other natural features." "Each year, Cary staff works di- rectly with our partners at Tianyu to design, select, and curate new lantern displays for the festival at Koka Booth Amphitheatre. After agreeing on preferred designs and layouts, Tianyu contracts with the artists in China to build the lanterns. Most of the lanterns are made in the city of Zigong in the Sichuan province, which is con- sidered the lantern capital of Chi- na for many centuries. e craft of making lanterns has been handed down to artisans in Zigong for generations," Lewis said. e lanterns are then disas- sembled and shipped from China to Wilmington, where they are loaded onto 15 tractor-trailers and driven to Cary to be reassembled. "e festival has grown in atten- dance every year, with last year's attendance topping 200,000. Cary has signed a contract to keep the N.C. Chinese Lantern Festi- val at Koka Booth Amphitheatre through the 2028-29 season," Lewis said. e Chinese Lantern Festival runs through Jan. 8. e annual Chinese Lantern Festival is at the Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary until Jan. 8. Gates are open nightly from 6 to 10 p.m. (Photos by Jason Brady) JASON BRADY, CityView Today. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcom- ingweekly.com. 910-484-6200.