Cleveland Metroparks Zoo has extended its Asian Lantern Festival through September 12, 2026, and for the first time in the event's nine-year run, the season will close with a drone light show instead of just glowing lanterns. The festival continues Thursdays through Sundays from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m., filling the zoo grounds with more than 1,000 illuminated lantern sculptures, walk-through tunnels, and themed areas built around Chinese lantern-making traditions.
The September 12 finale will feature hundreds of synchronized drones creating choreographed animations and illuminated storytelling above the zoo skyline, according to a press release cited by FOX 8 News. The drone show is produced by Sky Elements Drone Shows in partnership with Tianyu Arts & Culture, according to WKYC, marking the first time an aerial drone display has closed the festival in its nine-year history. Tickets to the drone finale cost $30 per person, separate from standard festival admission.
Tianyu Arts & Culture, the vendor behind the festival's handcrafted displays, brings artisans from Zigong, China, to hand-fabricate and assemble the lanterns on-site, preserving centuries-old lantern-making traditions, per Cleveland Magazine. The same company produces similar lantern festivals in cities including Philadelphia, Denver, and Boston. Since its 2018 launch, the Cleveland festival has drawn more than 1 million total visitors and regularly tops 150,000 guests a year, a scale the magazine notes has broken U.S. and international attendance records for lighting events of its kind.
New This Year: K-Pop Nights and Interactive Lanterns
New for 2026, the festival is offering a K-pop dance party featuring family-friendly K-pop and global pop music, complete with dance tutorials and interactive games, according to the FOX 8 report. The event also continues to lean into interactive technology, including giant motorized lion lanterns with moving eyes and mouths and a live two-way video stream lantern that lets Cleveland visitors interact in real time with guests at the Louisville Zoo in Kentucky, per FreshWater Cleveland.
Other tech-forward touches include pedal-, crank-, and step-operated lanterns that trigger sound or motion when activated by visitors, the outlet reports. Cultural programming rounds out the evening with hourly stage performances on the Fifth Third Bank Stage, featuring traditional Chinese folk arts like foot juggling and Bian Lian face-changing, alongside regional dishes served at the MetroHealth Asian Food Market.
Tickets, Drive-Through Nights, and Vehicle Limits
Advance walk-through tickets run $24 to $27 per person, or $27 to $29 if purchased the day of the event, with four-pack family tickets priced between $70 and $80, according to Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Children under two get in free. For those who prefer to stay in their cars, the zoo also offers drive-through nights on select evenings, priced at $49 per vehicle for members and $59 for non-members, though vehicles are capped at 20 feet long, 6.5 feet wide, and 10 feet tall. That format dates back to 2020, when it was introduced to meet COVID-19 safety guidelines.
The lantern setup has also become a stage for community events beyond the nightly walkthroughs. On Monday, the zoo hosted its annual Glow Run 5K presented by CrossCountry Mortgage, sending runners through the illuminated paths after hours to raise money for wildlife conservation, according to CoolCleveland. Finishers received glow-in-the-dark medals and T-shirts.
A Brand With a Legal History
The Asian Lantern Festival name itself has been the subject of a fight beyond Cleveland. In July 2021, Cleveland Metroparks filed a federal trademark lawsuit against the Pittsburgh Zoo over its use of the same “Asian Lantern Festival” name for its own summer light show, though a federal judge denied Cleveland's request for a temporary restraining order, according to TribLIVE. Notably, Pittsburgh Zoo had contracted with the same vendor, Tianyu Arts & Culture, for its event.
Past festival editions have leaned on large-scale thematic builds to keep repeat visitors coming back, including Dragons Landing's 100-foot-long “ice and fire” dragon and the RainForest Path presented by CrossCountry Mortgage, alongside a four-story butterfly tree display, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo has said. Displays are redesigned annually, meaning even longtime attendees see new lantern content each season. Whether the drone show becomes a permanent fixture in future editions, and how late-season weather might affect the September 12 flight, remain open questions heading into the finale.
