Despite reports to the contrary, the Lantern Fest did happen in Albuquerque on Saturday, and thousands of lanterns were successfully launched to light up the night sky.
The NAPA Speedway, aka Sandia Speedway, saw almost the entire track covered with s’mores kits, fire pits, hula hoops, limbo bars, pie-eating and Sprite-chugging contests, face painting, princesses, a bouncy house, live music and, of course, lanterns. And if that wasn’t enough to keep everyone entertained, fire dancers performed after the lantern launch to cap the event.
Spencer Humiston, a Lantern Fest director, said he was inspired by a lantern event he experienced in Thailand. He said inspiration is unique to the individual, and they make it a point not to tell people how to experience the event. Humiston said he has witnessed a wide range of reasons people want to attend the festival, which is often a deeply personal experience; but seeing all of the lanterns released at the same time is an amazing sight.
“It wouldn’t work unless everyone did it together,” Humiston said. “One lantern looks neat, but three or four thousand lanterns look incredible, and that you’re not able to pull that off unless people come together.”
Preston Ward, a staff member, said people would start showing up at noon at previous events, and they found out quickly that things needed to be added to keep people entertained until it was dark enough to send the lanterns up. He said the event’s uniqueness is what makes it such a popular draw.
“We are the only event of our kind in the entire nation,” Ward said. “It’s an emotional special event. Everybody sends up their lantern for a different reason, and many of them have incredible stories.”
Earlier in the month, several reports indicated the event had or might have been cancelled due to fire safety concerns, litter and permitting issues. Ward said, from their perspective, the event was never in danger of not occurring. He said they went through all the procedures to ensure they were covered.
He said the misinformation may have caused some of the sales to plateau, but they started to climb again when it was confirmed the event would take place. As patrons continued to file in and purchase tickets, he said there were at approximately 5,000 registered participants.
One of the obstacles event organizers had to overcome involved a permitting issue, because the venue supposedly only allows an event if a race occurs. To get around this, the coordinators of the festival added a race to the event to satisfy that permit requirement. Ward said first-year events are always a little tricky, but he’s glad they were able to work with city and county officials to get things taken care of.
“Albuquerque is more familiar with hot air balloons than anybody else,” he said. “It’s the same thing with the lanterns. They’ll all go up from the same place, follow the same pattern and drop in the same place.”
Humiston said they officially started hosting the lantern festival events in various locations around the country this year, but some test festivals were conducted in 2014 to ensure the safety of the environment as well as of those involved.
During the test events in 2014, the coordinators of the Lantern Festival were able to show the fire marshals they could mitigate the fire risk and show there are no harmful effects from lighting the lanterns and sending them into the air. He explained that the lanterns extinguish themselves long before ever touching the ground.
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During the launch, teams are sent out with fire extinguishers to track the lanterns, just to be on the safe side. They also send out volunteers to pick up the waste and lanterns, which are environmentally friendly and biodegradable, the next day.
Kelvin Krupiak, a senior business administration major, attended the event with a group of UNM students and friends that were celebrating a birthday. The lantern art in Krupiak’s group included everything from comic characters Calvin and Hobbs to the Eiffel Tower showing support for the people of France in light of the recent attacks in Paris.
Krupiak said he found out about the event from his friends and thought it would be fun to attend.
“It was really awesome to see that and share the experience with friends,” he said.
Ward also said the Lantern Festival makes it a point to coordinate with a charity for each time it’s held. For Albuquerque’s festival, they worked with the Angels of America’s Fallen charity, which provides relief for families who have lost a military person, he said.
Ward said the event had a great turnout and they are definitely looking forward to returning to Albuquerque for a future launch.
Robert Maler is a reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @robert_maler.
