Chinese Lantern Festival

This place has such beautiful vibrant displays. We didn't try any food. But we did come to celebrate a family members birthday on a random spontaneous night and glad we chose to come here. Took about 2 hours to go thru the whole display but it's lovely. Definitely coming back again with more friends to share the experience with them.

12/15/2019The last time there were any light festivals. This is one that I have gone to and seen great displays of lights. It's a good comparison with the one I saw at the LA Arboretum. What you want to do is walk around first then come back for the performances. I enjoyed the dragon on the floating water. Different dragons and monsters to ride for photos. I think I would come back here with a group. Definitely a good date event.

Thank you to Yelp for providing tickets for their Yelp giveaway! Located at the Pomona Fairplex, the Chinese Lantern Festival brings a nice display of lights, music, and performances for a limited time. Parking is $12 cash and there were plenty of spots since it's such a large location. The gates open at 5:30 pm sharp. At the entrance, there will be staff members that will be checking for tickets. Once you go beyond the gate, you're free to explore all the different colored lanterns and displays at your own pace. Food and drinks are also sold on site, but they looked a bit on the pricy side. Everything was located outdoors so it is greatly recommended that you dress warm. The paths will be dark with most of the light source coming from the lantern displays. There was also a mythical creature ride area where children could play. The entire lantern display (excluding the live stage performances) could be covered in probably half an hour. We caught one of the stage performance where traditional Chinese instruments were being played. Overall, the lantern displays were pretty and colorful. Other than that, the self paced walking tour was fairly short and after we walked the area, there wasn't much else to do. Since it was outdoors, it was also cold. It was an interesting experience to have if you haven't been to a lantern festival before.

The Chinese Lantern Festival at the Fairplex in Pomona (gate 17, parking cost $12 per car) is available for a visit Thursdays through Sundays now through January 6, nightly beginning at 5:30 pm until 10 pm. This outdoor event features over 1000 beautiful lanterns that can be pretty tall and large, not a typical lantern that you would imagine from China (like those typical red hanging lanterns, although there are some of those too). For the theme of the lantern festival, "The Wild", features locations from America, Oceania, Asia, Africa and Antarctica. Wild animals (the lanterns) in each location represents those animals that includes pandas, elephants, jellyfish, cheetahs. For some reason, there are also dinosaurs as well. Oceania was my favorite land to visit. In addition to seeing the sights, there are also a few shows performing that includes a shadow puppet show and acrobatic kung fu and tai chi performance. The shadow puppet show was actually pretty interesting to me and thought the 2 stories that we watched was rather interesting. I liked how the 2 performers used their puppets to tell a story, which is different from a typical puppet show (you just have to see it). This show, which is near the flamingo lanterns, is only performed twice nightly (at least when we went yesterday evening, the show time board only showed 2 times). For the kung fu and tai chi performance, my husband and I caught the show at 7:45 pm which lasted for about 30 minutes. This show can be found at the stage by the dolphin lanterns. Six very talented young men performed various kung fu moves with and without weapons/ props to the music. In between, a much older gentleman performed tai chi rhythmic moves. This show was interesting but the music was way too loud, blasting from the speakers. I had to cover my ears during the entire show. Please note that there is very limited seating (benches) and so if you wish to watch, you may find some "seating" on the grass and rock walls. Anyways, as for the lanterns itself, they truly are impressive. I loved seeing all the different animals once we were in a different "land". It was really neat to see that some of the lanterns also moved (movement of the head, the arms, the tongue, etc). In one part of the event, vendors are selling some of their handcraft items that includes clay animals and other creations, Chinese knotting designs of animals, hearts, etc, animal silhouettes, honey lollipops that can be made in an intricate design, silk paintings/ embroidery. If you have ever been to tourist places in China, you would know what I am talking about. It shouldn't come as a surprise that these items are rather expensive, but they are handcrafted and this is the appropriate place to charge the high places. My husband and I were here for about 1.5 hours since we watched 2 shows. But you could probably see everything and take your photos within an hour (but what's the rush?). We really did enjoy ourselves and would do this again again.I do want to mention that there are 3 restrooms available at this event. There are 2 inside once you walk inside but there are also clean restrooms right outside the entrance (please note that there are no paper towels or warm water and the automatic dryer is blowing cold air on you). When we arrived, around 6:25 pm, there was a long line because there was only 1 person at the entrance scanning tickets. If you have a ticket that does not have a scanable ticket, then you can walk to the tent by the side and get tickets there. There were a few food options at this event, which included Americanized Chinese food (can't miss it, this little eatery looks like a white Chinese take out box, even fitting with one of those photo head cut outs) and 1 food truck on site. There is also a small little place (in a different location from the food truck and Chinese take out box) where you could get ice cream. Please note that because this event is outside, it is pretty cold. I would highly suggest that you dress warmly, including having a scarf, gloves, hand warmers, beanie and ear muffs. If you are a southern California native like me, then you will need all of these things to stay warm while you walk around and admire all the sights and take your photos. Tickets are cheaper on line than at the door, so if you are interested in attending, be sure to check it out before coming. Definitely a great event if seeing lights and beautiful lanterns make you smile (if you already love the photos on this Yelp page, including mine, then maybe you should check it out).

Had a great time admiring the beautiful and colorful lanterns. The Kung-fu show was very entertaining as well. Might want to come with a full stomach though cause their food choices are very limited and expensive (I guess like any other parks). Bottom line, I think event is worth the visit.

The lanterns are spectacular. Each made with fine details out of fabric materials held together with metal wires. The dragon display seemed to be the only one made entirely from dishes, spoons, and tea cups held together by strings. One needs to carefully look at the details of the displays to appreciate the craftsmanship of each of them.The only improvement is to have some night market food vendors available. Would have loved to get some skewers, Chinese snacks, or boba drinks.

This was definitely a different experience. I won tickets to come check this place out through a yelp giveaway and was very excited to check it out.Tickets are $21 and when we arrived we had to pay $12 to park also which is typically about what I pay for parking at an event so that was not a surprise. We got there when the event first started so we were able to park close to the entrance and easily picked up our tickets from the will call booth.As soon as you walk up you are greeted by bright and beautiful lights and as soon as you walk through you can begin your journey. Overall this was a great experience and help me to really appreciate the Chinese art however I did expect the event to be a little bigger or maybe I just felt it was a little overpriced for the experience i got.Food was also very overpriced they offered Chinese themed tacos and Chinese food plates for $16 but also to be expected. I would recommend everyone come here at least once but I don't think there is a need to come back twice

I was invited to this spectacle and I am very glad I was able to attend. It's an evening event and I was very impressed by the lighted lanterns and the amazing photo opportunities. Another plus is that it doesn't get super crowded like other events at the Fairplex. Great for children and don't forget to bring your mom - she will be impressed. Parking is $12 and you can use a credit card to pay.

I do have to say I am somewhat disappointed in this festival. First, it was surprisingly relatively small. For the amount paid I believe it's too pricey.Maybe I am wrong but when I thought festival I thought it would be full of different things and just bigger. Parking was really easy to find, the lot is very spacious so there should be no problem. Food: there was only one food truck there, which was disappointing for me I thought we would have more options but no. The food truck that they had was pretty cool, painted as a to go chinese container, which was cool. They only had two options of food. The first option was the best it had, orange and teriyaki chicken, with rice and chow mein and one egg roll. Second option: hamburger and fries. The lights were indeed beautiful, animals and all. But just not big enough. Maybe if the price was lowered it would be a different story.Just FYI: prices online are better to buy because the price is lowered. Online for adults are about $21 and at the door it's about $27. Online they also have different priced tickets for children, military, and much more.They also offer a show, but we weren't able to see it in time. I'm sure children would like it.

The Chinese Lantern Festival was full of lovely lanterns on that I definitely agree, but it literally took about 30-40 minutes for my man & I to walk around and see the displays and then we left. We watched a portion of one show but since there was no seating we were standing in the cold and trust it was super cold on Sunday night so we couldn't enjoy it. We left the show to walk around and keep our bodies warm. I did enjoy seeing the lanterns, but it just wasn't worth the drive for me coming from Orange County. It was nice to give it a shot, but I don't think I'll attend this event again.