GRAND RAPIDS LANTERN FESTIVAL

The Lantern Festival is a one-mile light tour through John Ball Zoo. The festival features handcrafted Asian lantern displays that will illuminate the Zoo and tell the intersecting story of wildlife and Asian culture.

Individual Tickets are as follows:

GENERAL ADMISSION
Non-members | $22.00
Members | $19.00

4 PASS TICKETS
*This means you are purchasing 4 tickets for 4 people on the same night.

Non-members | $66.00
Members | $57.00

*No Student, Senior or Military discount is offered during the event.

Yes! All children 2 years old and under are FREE! Children ages 3 and up will require a ticket.

Unfortunately, the JUMP Program does not qualify for our evening and special events.

We highly recommend purchasing tickets online ahead of time to ensure an available ticket at your preferred entry time. Tickets may be purchased onsite if entry time capacity is still available. Our ticket booth is open every night that the Lantern Festival runs from 7pm-10pm.

No! Entry times are staggered to ensure an enjoyable guest experience. Once you’ve entered the event you can enjoy it at your own pace.

Yes. Our Lantern Festival is a special program that we are offering in conjunction with the company, Tianyu, who has provided the beautiful displays. Because they have worked so diligently to create these gorgeous structures for us, we are splitting the revenue from this event only with their company. This means that all Daily Tickets and Lanterns Tickets need to be purchased separately.

Most animals will not be viewable on the Lantern Festival route at night. For our animals’ safety, we keep them on their typical nightly routine and for most of them, that means that they are in their indoor habitats for the night.

It does not. We are only providing a discount to those who are members at John Ball Zoo.

The Lantern Festival will operate rain or shine, so we do not offer refunds for any tickets purchased. If necessary, we can move those tickets to an alternate date. In order to do that, please email [email protected], provide the Booking ID that is on your tickets and the alternate date you would like to move to.

*We cannot guarantee that you will be able to move your tickets if the alternate date you are requesting is full.

Yes! We provide several food options throughout the park during the festival. The Whistle Stop Café, near the large waterfall and across from our Hobby Farm, includes themed food such as bao bun tacos, eggrolls and more! Our Tiger Paws venue, located at the top of the zoo by our tiger habitat, offers pizza, breadsticks and the fan favorite Dole Whip! Additionally, this venue serves alcoholic beverages (must be 21+)!

It takes roughly 1 – 1 ½ hours to get through the entire Festival.