Lantern Light Festival opens in Shakopee

Shakopee Valley News

Do not be alarmed if you see strange lights coming from Canterbury Park tonight through Oct. 22 — it's not aliens, it's the Lantern Light Festival.

The festival, featuring a 400-foot dragon lantern and several Minnesota-themed lanterns, opens tonight.

“The pictures don’t do the event justice,” Pinnacle Production Group President and CEO Sanjay Syal said. “When you stand next to this dragon, there’s no picture that makes that kind of impact. I think the biggest thing is what’s here is totally different from what’s on video.”

The festival came to Shakopee after success in Memphis and Miami. Over 30 lantern artists traveled from China in August to create the lanterns, which are first sketched and then steel rods are formed to create the shapes. The frames are filled with LED lights and covered with fabric.

“People really appreciate this more if they see how it’s built,” Syal said. “When you truly appreciate what it takes to build it, then you understand how beautiful this looks.”

Each lantern theme takes about four weeks to complete with each festival featuring hundreds of lanterns.

Syal recommends coming about a half hour to an hour before sunset to see the lanterns before they are lit up and then after to see the work and detail that goes into the production.

Over 2,000 years ago, Chinese Emperor Hanmingdi ordered lanterns to be lit for Buddha on the fifteenth day of the first Chinese lunar month, according to a news release.

Besides the lanterns, the event will also feature inflatable mazes, obstacle courses, dragon rides, mining for emeralds, music, wishing tree, Chinese acrobats and more. Tickets are from $18 to $23, with group pricing available.

For more information and to purchase tickets, go to www.lanternlightfestival.com.