The North Carolina Chinese Lantern Festival, also known as the Zigong Lantern Festival, visits a few places around the country each year. For the eighth year, the festival will be set up in Cary at the Koka Booth Amphitheatre. Presented at the festival will be the most beautiful handcrafted Chinese lanterns made by more than twenty-five visiting Chinese artisans and performers. The festival also presents stage performances of Chinese culture. The featuring performances include martial arts, traditional dance, acrobatics, drum performances and more.

“Last year’s festival drew guests from all one hundred counties in North Carolina, plus visitors from fifty U.S. states and territories. Cary’s Koka Booth Amphitheatre is proud to host this treasured destination event.” says William Lewis, Cary’s Art Manager. Last year’s Chinese Lantern Festival set a new attendance record of 216,000 visitors, more than the year 2021, which had 200,000. 

Chinese lantern making has been going on for about more than two thousand years. Chinese lantern making is commonly presented to people to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Lantern-crafting skills have been passed down from many generations. In 1964, the Zigong Lantern Festival was the most popular lantern festival in China and known as “The First Lantern Show in the World.” The Zigong Lantern Festival was presented in more than forty countries around the world and up to five hundred cities. About 400 million people have so far visited the Zigong Lantern show, and until this day, the numbers keep rising.

Don’t miss out and support this great opportunity that comes around every year with new lanterns. It is about an hour walk to see all the beautiful lanterns placed around. Want to get a glimpse of the Chinese culture as well?  A few Asian and Korean inspired foods will also be available to purchase. Many standard favorites are also going to be available as well as a common hot chocolate for this cold weather.