“Better thank your lucky stars” – Green Day – Waiting
(This is my favorite song ever, check it out!)
The Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania held a lantern festival last weekend and it was so cool. The event itself was called Night Lights Event and they do events all over the US. I had seen this event flash across my Facebook ads multiple times but somehow every year I always saw it too late. This year I happened to see the ad a few weeks before and had that weekend free so I decided why not check this out.
There were 2 options for registration, Saturday or Sunday night. I chose Sunday night since the pricing was a little cheaper. The website seemed to say that the prices may increase over time as the event gets closer, so I ordered tickets about 3 weeks in advance and they were $44 per person for Sunday evening. I believe the Saturday pricing when I looked was about $66 per person. So if you hear about this early enough, I’m sure prices are cheaper.
Admission to the event started at 3pm. There was a live band, food stands and other vendors like crafts, jewelry, and alcohol. Most of the food stands were your traditional festival / fair food like french fries, chicken tenders, hot dogs, and soft pretzels, but there were some other options as well. There was a food truck selling smoothie bowls and smoothies, which is what I got. The food stand next to the smoothie truck was doing wok fried noodles. They smelled really good but the line was super long, which I’m sure means they were good.
The admission ticket gets you into the event and a biodegradable lantern with a marker and a lighter. Although, I will say bringing your own lighter might be a good idea. It was more difficult than I would like to admit to light the lanterns. It didn’t help that it was pretty windy but the lighters weren’t that great either. If I go to this event again I will most certainly be bringing my large stick lighter.
A few days before the event I received an email stating what was and was not allowed into the event. Some things that are allowed were: cameras, tripods, lawn chairs, blankets, games, and sealed food and water. Things not allowed into the event were: coolers, outside alcohol, pets, fireworks, etc.
I went to this event with my mom and my best friend so we brought lawn chairs, blankets, extra sweatshirts, and some bottles of water. When we first entered we signed in and picked up our lanterns and lighters. There was an option to purchase a fire pit and a s’mores kit. The fire pits were tin cans. They looked like cookie containers you usually see around Christmas time.
After picking up our materials we set up near the top of the hill by the stage where the band was playing. We sat and chatted for awhile and then walked around the entire area checking out all the food and other vendors. After eating our smoothie bowls we got to work on our lanterns. With the lantern package you got a marker to write or draw on your lantern. I wrote some of my favorite quotes and drew some small pictures. Somehow we ended up with an extra lantern so we left that one sealed in the package.
We didn’t light the lanterns until about 8:15pm. We had to wait for the all clear from the fire marshall (I read on the event website they have lantern chasers who go after the lanterns once they go up). Like I mentioned before, it was kind of difficult to light the lanterns and even to get them to take off. There was a fuel cell, cardboard looking piece in the center base that needed to have all four corners lit. Once lit, you are suppose to bring it close to the ground and let it fill up with the air / fire and then slowly bring it up. I actually asked the group behind us for help getting it lit.
I mentioned that extra lantern we left sealed in the package, good thing we did. I tried to send my lantern off first, didn’t go well. The wind picked up and ended up burning a hole in the side of it so it wouldn’t have a successful lift off. We tried my best friend’s lantern, similar situation. We tried my moms lantern, another disaster. Good thing we had that 4th lantern because that was the only one that took off with the kind help of the group behind us.
We were thinking that since it was very humid that the dew set in and may have made the lanterns harder to light, because they did feel different than when we first opened them and that last lantern we had felt like tissue paper. It also could have just been we were not good at lighting and launching them haha.
Overall it was a really nice family friendly event. It was really cool to see all the lanterns go up and float away. It reminded me of the scene from Tangled a little bit. I would go back and do this again. It’s definitely worth checking out and experiencing at least once.
The Venturesome Introvert 