Lantern Light Festival

This is the first year that I'm aware of the Lantern Light Festival making it to Minneapolis. Being Chinese myself and having limited events in the cities that relate specifically to my culture, it's always nice to see these types of events.Prior to going, I tried to look up information on their website. Needless to say, there's pretty limited information so I decided to just check things out myself. Hopefully my review can clarify some of the confusing things about this place. It's available September 7-October 22, only on Thursday-Sunday evenings. From September 7-October 1, it opens at 6 PM and closes at 11 PM. From October 5-October 22, it opens an hour earlier at 5 PM and closes at 11 PM.There are entertainment shows every hour (7 PM, 8 PM, 9 PM, and 10 PM). The 7 PM and 9 PM show are the same and the 8 PM and 10 PM show are the same, but there are two different shows so I would recommend going to the 7 and 8 PM show, or the 9 and 10 PM show so you can see both. They have a myriad of different entertainment, including acrobats and various type of Chinese dances. Each show lasts for about 30 minutes. They have plenty of seating available for these shows.The entire park is decorated with tons of different types of lanterns, shaped in almost anything you could imagine. It's very beautiful and unique, especially at night when the sun sets. They also advertise several other things that I'll try and clarify.They only have a few food trucks available, despite them advertising "Chinese food", I felt like most of the food was state fair American food (such as turkey legs, etc.). Food was definitely limited so I would either eat beforehand or just don't go starving since you can fill up on a few snacks.The remainder of the entertainment including Mining for Emeralds, various rides for kids, mini golf, inflatables, all cost extra. Though the Forbidden City Maze was free, it's just a small blow-up maze. Granted I'm not a child, but it took me about 1 minute to walk through it. Fireworks are ONLY on September 30th as far as I could tell.The reason I give it 3 stars is because it was so pricey for very limited excitement. It's $23 per ticket for an adult, but after all the fees and tax, it ends up being $28.70/adult. Even though the lanterns were beautiful, all you're really doing is walking through the field and looking at them which realistically, even if you are taking your time and taking pictures/videos, it would really only take a maximum of 30-45 minutes. Overall, I just thought it was really pricey for what we paid for.If there's any last minute advice I can give you, BRING MOSQUITO REPELLENT. I made my mistake by not doing this and my legs got bitten alive.

Easily the dumbest ripoff imaginable. It was something like $23 for an adult ticket. They advertised "authentic Chinese cuisine" which included egg rolls and orange chicken. GTFO. Everything was expensive. They wanted $8 to play some lame ass mini golf and the other activities we're comically bad. Got dragged to this event because my friends tell me I never go try new stuff and now I have a complex because this event literally made not want to socialize ever again. I needed to see a therapist after going to this event. If I could sum up my experience here it would be this. Try to imagine losing $50 in cash then spending the next 2 hours trying to find only for it to never reappear.

Probably the lamest thing I have done in years. Stay away total rip-off $100 for General admin tickets for me and 3 kids...The photo is of the mini golf...(which cost extra) but pretty much sums the place up.

Plastic and cloth lit by light bulbs! An absolute ripoff! Four food stands with half hour waits! Two dragons that move as much as your grandma in the nursing home, a minute and a half of almost virtual reality in an exhibit, cheap and expensive trinkets. The bouncy houses were the only entertaining aspect, and you can usually do that for free. Please save you money! Don't go!