I’m not quite the “festival in the field” kinda of girl – it doesn’t matter which field or what festival, chances are if there are porta potties, there’s a high chance that I’ll say no. Festivals all day in the sun just sound exhausting with lots of downtime, too many people and traffic aggravation – frankly it’s just never been my thing even when I was young.  Now I get to be that old, crabby lady without having to explain myself. So when my friends asked me to go to the field in the middle of nowhere to light a fire in a lantern and send it into the sky as part of The Lights Festival Philadelphia on a Saturday night, they were surprised when I said “yes”.  I was surprised I said “yes” because it seemed like a lot of wasted time for a few minutes of social media fun. For the instagram crowd, this was gold. But when the song Hallelujah began and thousands of lanterns lit up the sky, for a few minutes, I could enjoy the beauty of it all.

Finding The Lights Festival in Philadelphia

My friend Maria and I set the GPS coordinates in Waze and began our trek to The Lights Festival field in Kennett Square, PA (about an hour from Philadelphia, way out in the open field/farming suburbs) which led us down back roads, neighborhoods streets, dirt roads and finally to the road that led to the open field hosting 3,000 people (and their cars) at the Lights Festival.  With rain in the forecast and some dark and foreboding clouds, I hesitantly parked up the hill on the grass field hopeful for no rain because I wasn’t quite sure how we get through the mud.

Walking through the knee high grasses to the ankle high grass field we checked in and received our rice paper lantern bag (with instructions printed) and a bag containing a pen and wristband.  The large field was portioned out by tiki torches not yet lit in rows and aisles.  At the bottom of the hill was a stage with an acoustic musician singing popular songs with some children dancing in front of the stage.  Our friends had arrived earlier than we had and found a square flanked by four torches on the corners to call their own. They set up a table with foods and a blanket on the ground.  Maria and I brought our chairs and more foods to enjoy.

Food & Souvenirs at The Lights Festival

In the distance by the row of porta potties, there were long lines for the six food trucks.  Given the waits of the people walking with food (nearly an hour), I’d suggest packing your own picnic like we had and so many others had done.  Six food trucks and nearly 3,000 people?  Definitely not enough to count on. There were enough porta potties so the wait was minimal.  Do bring a flashlight with you as the tiki torches only light the launch area, the surrounding common walkways, porta potties and fields were dark and uneven terrain.

If you had forgotten your chair or blanket, they were selling blow up couches embossed with the “Light Festival name and logo”.  For kids, there was a children’s play area and for those who “need” to shop there were a few kiosks with jewelry and photos to buy in addition to the event merchandise.

Hopes, Dreams and Wishes on Paper Lanterns

The main event though would need to wait until after sunset, until it was dark enough to set the thousands of lanterns drifting up to the sky, after the local fire officials deemed it safe enough. There was a chance that the hours of waiting (or socializing I believe it’s called) might result in a “no go” if the weather didn’t cooperate.

During our wait, we each took our sharpies provided to write messages, wishes and hopes on our lanterns.  For me, my mind could only think of “Peace, Love, Cookies” and then “I need a job” and then shifted to my wishes “I’d like to hit the lottery and retire on an island” and find “love with an EU work permit” – you know all the fun stuff.

Lighting the Lanterns at The Lights Festival

With the torches lit throughout the field and the speaker on the stage to demonstrate what to do, there was the stray lantern lit ahead of time and sent up into the dark night that elicited a rousing “boo” from the crowd as the fire captain didn’t give the go ahead yet.

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Once we did get the “all clear”, it became interesting. 3,000+ people don’t always follow directions or execute the same.  A few folks didn’t wait until the entire bottom was aglow with fire so their lanterns quickly fell to the ground and started small fires that had to be stepped on or doused with water bottles.  The two man process was a test of patience because two minutes is longer than you imagine trying to get the bottom lit with the torch fire.  Once the lantern felt a bit full we started letting go and watching the field of lanterns gently and slowly float into the night sky.  Many would travel to the adjacent field (the targeted landing spot) and fizzle out.  As for the others, the wind wasn’t carrying them too far so I’m not sure where my hopes and dreams written on the lantern drifted to or fell.

 

Environmental Concerns at The Lights Festival

For many critics, it’s about the environment.  The lanterns were made with bio-degradable rice paper. Lights Festival officials map out the landing field area for the low flying lanterns to fall to the ground. Volunteers were set up to clear the trash and pick up lanterns.  As for the bulk of the lanterns, many could have just gone up in smoke.  I would hope that the local authorities prior to issuing permits for such an event had figured out all the trash logistics. Each aisle had a trash box for the plastic wrappers and event trash.

I do know that I have a Facebook friend with horses that abhors these events as the stray lanterns land in her field and the horses and other animals try to eat them.  So when you do post about your Lights Festival experience, do understand that while the Festival has a leave no trace policy and tries to be environmental, there will be stray lanterns that get away and folks who have valid environmental concerns about these types of events.  I know that I had some disapproving comments on my social media accounts.

Leaving the Lights Festival

When our lanterns were done ascending, we waited and watched for about 1/2 hour before we began the crazy rush to the parking lot as thousands of cars were now all intent on exiting at the same time down the one lane road. Unlike a sporting event, there was only one way out.  Somehow for me, parking on top of the hill, I had this gut feeling that I needed to follow the stray car going in the opposite direction down the dirt and hay covered road.  I followed slowly and began a bit of off-roading through the field and to the open gate, thereby escaping the throngs of cars in only 10 minutes.  Good things like that don’t usually happen to me (my friends waited nearly two plus hours in the car exit line). Maybe the lantern wish “hit the lottery” was a bit vague and I hit the parking lot lottery to avoid the intolerable wait.

Overall Thoughts – The Lights Festival in Philadelphia

That’s the thing with hopes, dreams and wishes, you may need to be quite specific rather than vague.  Either way, it was a fun night out with friends in a random field in Pennsylvania launching our dreams, hopes and wishes into the air.  We wrote down fun, silly and serious statements on our lanterns to represent us in that moment and then we let it out (and up) into the universe if only for a few minutes of spectacular wonder.  It was a stunning spectacle and now that I’ve done it once, I’m good.

The Lights Festival is international and happening in cities around the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.  To find your local Lights Festival check out the festival of light schedule on the event page.  It’s scheduled back to Philly in October if you want to go, sign up early for discounted tickets.