LANTERNS! 2019 this weekend at Wildwood Park

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Wildwood’s annual deep-winter festival celebrates the first full moon of the lunar new year. Held over three magical evenings, guests are transported to far away lands and times as they stroll through the beautifully lit pathways of Wildwood’s gardens. Cultural vistas feature live entertainment, food, drink, games and more throughout the Park’s Butler Arboretum and inside the Lucy Lockett Cabe Festival Theatre.

This year’s vistas include Germany, Mexico, China, Scotland, and the rest of the United Kingdom. Our American vista is Prohibition Chicago. As always, a trip to the Moon is a must, but this year be sure to stop by Area 51 as you just might find some aliens at our Moon vista.

Once you’re inside the gate, purchase your WildBucks at any of four locations and enjoy food and beverages at every vista. Prices range from $1 to $8. (ATM available inside the Park.) All proceeds support Wildwood Park for the Arts’ programs, gardens and operations.

TICKETS:

Tickets to the event are available online: $10 for adults, $5 for children age 6 – 12, Admission to LANTERNS! is FREE for children 5 and younger. At noon on each day of the festival, admission for that evening will increase to $12 for adults and $7 for children. Tickets at the gate are $12 for adults and $7 for children. Admission to LANTERNS! for children 5 and younger is FREE.

If you choose to purchase your ticket at the gate, we recommend bringing cash to avoid credit card fees and ticket lines!

Shuttles will run between The Promenade at Chenal and Wildwood Park beginning at 6 pm nightly until 30 minutes past the Festival’s closing. The festival closes at 10 pm on Friday & Saturday, 9 pm on Sunday. Arkansas Destinations shuttles will pick up passengers in the mall’s Courtyard located on the west side of the mall. Parking is ample. 

Off-street parking is also available along Denny Road in front of Wildwood Park. Guests enter the park on foot through two gates; no festival patron automobiles are allowed inside the park.

This weekend – Lanterns festival at Wildwood Park

Lanterns_07-1500x630Wildwood’s annual deep-winter festival celebrates the first full moon of the lunar new year. Held over three magical evenings – February 19 – 21, 2016 – guests are transported to far away lands and times as they stroll through the beautifully lit pathways of Wildwood’s gardens.

Cultural vistas feature live entertainment, food, drink, games and more throughout the Park’s Butler Arboretum and inside the Lucy Lockett Cabe Festival Theatre. This year’s featured locations are Australia, Brazil, China, Greece, Hawaii and the UK.

Shuttles run from the Kroger on Chenal Parkway beginning at 6 pm nightly until 30 minutes past the Festival’s closing. Limited parking is also available at Wildwood.

Tickets are $8 for adults online and $10 at the gate. For children ages 6-12 tickets are $4 online and $5 at the gate, and children 5 and under attend FREE!

Light Up the Night This Weekend with LANTERNS! at Wildwood

Don’t miss THE MOON! at this year’s LANTERNS! Festival March 6 – 8. You can check out our giant moon balloon, delight in a moon-pie, and sip on a Blue Moon beer. Visit six locations spread throughout the park!

Located in Wildwood’s award-winning Asian Woodland Garden, the Asian Vista is a perennial highlight of LANTERNS! Don’t miss the wide variety of foods, including sushi, dumplings, egg rolls and fried rice. Sake and beer will be available as well as hot jasmine tea. Two bands, The Lemon Drops and The News Kids will perform in the garden’s Tea House while a Chinese harpist and a calligrapher will be on hand to showcase their art!

Wildwood is alive with the sound of music! Austria comes to Arkansas in the lobbies of Wildwood’s Cabe Theatre. Piping hot Viennese beef soup with crepe slivers will be served with apple strudel and delectable pastries. Be on the lookout for bands of gypsy vagabonds. The theatre’s south lobby has been transformed into a Alpine winter wonderland – complete with gourmet chocolate shoppe, mountain goats and polka band!

There is a literal pot of gold at the end of Wildwood’s Ireland rainbow, and a bit o’ gold for everyone who makes it through the leprechaun’s maze. Traditional Irish dancers entertain while festival goers dine on two Irish staples: beer and potatoes. For those looking to stay warm, there’s a steaming cup of Irish coffee waiting for you, and there’s Fizzy Leprechaun punch for the kids! Be careful where you step! Daffodils are a’bloom and William Wordsworth, one of Ireland’s greatest poets, will be on hand to tell you all about them!

Are you ready to live la vida LANTERNS!? All the tastes of Mexico can be found in Wildwood’s gazebo. Beer and tequila shots will be on hand, while a mariachi and DJ get the party started. The festival’s famed floating lanterns are launched from the gazebo, piñatas will be broken nightly!

It is England in 1600 in Wildwood’s Studios, and Shakespeare’s greatest works are being performed on the hour! Smoked turkey legs and brats are for sale and you’ll find a few lovely ladies hawking cherry tarts to passers by. Make your way down High Street and be on the lookout for carnival performers of all kinds. If you’re visiting with someone special, get them a fresh orange – these rare fruits are the ultimate symbol love!

Visit America in the 1950s as the Greatest Generation is home and ready to rock! Stop by your local soda shop to enjoy a Coke Float and snack on some classic American treats. Grab your poodle skirt and get on the dance floor where Elvis, Chuck Berry, and the Supremes are waiting for you. When you’re ready for a break, sit bit and enjoy a show by amazing performance artists!

Buy your tickets at http://bit.ly/1v4DDa4.

This weekend at Wildwood Park – 6th annual LANTERNS! Festival

LanternsLANTERNS! Festival, Arkansas’ only deep-winter outdoor festival, will light up the night at Wildwood Park for a sixth year of family fun and illuminating entertainment! Travel paved paths illuminated with fire pits and thousands of luminaria to enjoy unique entertainment, authentic food and beverages for all ages at eight cultural vistas from around the globe!

LANTERNS! runs from 6pm to 10pm on Friday, February 14, Saturday, February 15 and Sunday, February 16.

Tickets are available at the gate during festival days:
$10 for Adults
$5 for Children (6-12 years old)
FREE for Children 5 and Under
At Wildwood, visitors will take a mystical stroll along paved pathways lit by fire pits and luminaries into the park’s winter woodlands to enjoy a variety of indoor and outdoor entertainment at lighted vistas representing six cultural vistas around the globe.
This year’s festival includes Asia, Jamaica, Mexico, New Orleans, Rome, and Shakespeare’s England.
Cultural entertainment, games, and discoveries span the Park’s arboretum, gardens, and lakeside performance spaces.
Wildwood’s performance complex, including the 625-seat Lucy Lockett Cabe Festival Theatre, is transformed into an international spectacle, meant to transport festival-goers to the far corners of the globe via magical tastes, sounds, and sights.
As visitors stroll through the glowing paths of of Wildwood’s lakeside forest, they will be immersed in a new culture at every turn.

LANTERNS! this weekend at Wildwood

LANTERNS! Festival, Arkansas’ only deep-winter outdoor festival, will light up the night at Wildwood Park for a fifth year of family fun and illuminating entertainment! Travel paved paths illuminated with fire pits and thousands of luminaria to enjoy unique entertainment, authentic food and beverages for all ages at eight cultural vistas from around the globe!

LANTERNS! runs from 6pm to 10pm on Friday, February 22 and Saturday, February 23.  On Sunday, February 24 it runs from 6pm to 9pm.

Tickets are available at the gate during festival days:
$10 for Adults
$5 for Children (6-12 years old)
FREE for Children 5 and UnderSHUTTLE service will be provided to and from Kroger Marketplace at Chenal Parkway.This year’s cultural vistas include:

Asia – Asian New Year festivals inspire LANTERNS! Hosted by Northington Investment Group, this vista’s serene Asian Woodland Garden & Pavilion are bedecked with paper lanterns and a traditional Chinese dragon. Sushi rolls, warming teas and sips of Sake beckon patrons to immerse themselves in demonstrations and traditions of Asian culture where families explore Eastern artistic traditions. Discover why it’s the Year of the Snake!

Bavaria – Visit the Park’s beer garden and polka to the sounds of The Itinerant Locals! This lively duo will have you dancing yourself into a pretzel under the full moon. Refresh your palate with German fare beneath the Maibaum and enjoy a lakeside feast for the eyes in the winter woodlands.

The Caribbean Warm up next to the fire pits along the shoreline, enjoy a show by the Park’s famed pirates (Armadillo Rodeo Improv Troupe), walk the plank, and seek your treasure in Pirates Cove.

Greece Travel back in time to the mythical land of ancient Greece where you’ll be greeted by living statues. Don your laurel wreath and help reconstruct ancient glory with vista hostess Christen Bufford and her team from Little Rock Central High School. Try a taste of lighter fare, maybe some Ouzo.

New Orleans Hot jazz continues all night indoors on Bourbon Street, where guests will delight in Cajun fare, signature beverages, and a fortune-telling Voodoo Queen! Thoma Thoma hosts our high-spirited Café du Monde while the kings & queens of this party feast on beignets!

Rio de Janeiro Café Bossa Nova, Vivian Norman and Patti Stanley are teaming up to take you on an adventure to colorful South America! Learn to Samba the night away while dining on exquisite authentic cuisine and sipping on caipirinhas.

Shakespeare’s England Hosted by Elizabeth and Tom Small with performances by the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre, this vista transports you to Elizabethan England, complete with street urchins, fresh-roasted turkey legs, ale and kidfriendly Shakesbeer.

Venice The Park’s iconic Gazebo awaits sailors and ladies with a monumental selection of sweet treats! Commedia dell Arte performances will have you silly with glee! Launch wishing lanterns at the gazebo; your hopes and dreams will glow bright throughout this enchanting evening!