The nights at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo are set to shimmer a little longer as the Asian Lantern Festival extends to September 14. Initially set to conclude on August 25, the festival has been a beacon of cultural celebration. Now enthusiasts and latecomers alike have extra dates to wander amongst the illuminated splendor, according to an announcement shared by cleveland.com.
But hold your horses, or rather, bikes. In what's billed as a unique twist to the festival, the zoo has decided to bring back its Wild Ride event on September 15th, where guests can bike through the luminous landscape. The chance this offers cyclists to pedal past the pagodas and lanterns is a one-night-only affair, part of the special programming designed to send off the festival with a final memory. WKYC has shared this.
Over one million guests have immersed themselves in the Asian Lantern Festival since its inception, with this year's count exceeding 105,000 visitors thus far. "With the inclusion of Dino Cove in this year's event, there is more to experience after hours than ever before," said Cleveland Metroparks Chief Marketing Officer Kelly Manderfield in a statement obtained by Spectrum News 1. The festival boasts over 70 large-scale illuminations, including a massive 50-foot pagoda, walk-through tunnels, the Crystal World and Blooming Gardens-themed areas, and cultural performances and culinary offerings.
As autumn approaches, and for those who have yet to witness the zoo's transformation into a nocturnal fantasy, these additional nights offer the perfect opportunity to see the convergence of traditional Asian culture and modern spectacle and behold a zoo not just home to animals but now to a historic cultural exchange that lights up the night, and remember, tickets for the wildly popular Wild Ride need to be nabbed before they're all gone, bicycles are strictly bring-your-own, more information on booking the glowing experience can be found via the respective zoo's website.
