Blazing with color and light, fantastic larger-than-life plants and wildlife glow across the zoo’s landscape, some spurting smoke-filled bubbles.
“There’s lots of fun tunnels. There’s bubbles everywhere. There’s lanterns you can swing on and play with.”
Darci Mitchell, Promotions and Events Manager at John Ball Zoo says if you’re one of the hundreds of thousands of visitors who have come before, there’s something new to see this year in the one-mile walk through hundreds of handcrafted Asian lanterns, interactive experiences and cultural entertainers.
“We even have a custom lantern that we had built for us that’s the Poweshiek skipperling, which is a species of rare butterfly the zoo does lots of conservation work with.”
Zoo staff is actively releasing those butterflies into the wild through programs onsite.
“It tells such a great story of the intersection of wildlife and culture. It’s a really great way to tell the story of what we do here at the zoo.”
Sponsored by Meijer and Tianyu Arts and Culture, the festival runs evenings at the zoo through June 15.
Mitchell recommends buying timed tickets online in advance as dates do sell out.
“Hopefully people will come experience the zoo in a new way and leave caring a little more about wildlife and wild places.”
