Poconos Lantern Fest
The Lantern Fest was a magical, yet disappointing experience. It was a two hour drive from where Miguel lives, and was pretty straightforward. At one point we came to a tunnel that went through a mountain. Pretty wild for a girl from Long Island lol. Once we got there, we paid $20 to park on the grass. It was an easy process, but good luck trying to find your car in the dark when you leave. There’s not much around to help you remember where you parked, and it’s poorly lit. I should have used Google maps to record where we parked.
When we walked in, no one asked for tickets. A worker literally just gave us wristbands. Why did I pay for this? Wtf. I basically paid $50 for a paper lantern, and a shitty s’mores kit. They give you a mini pack of graham crackers, two mini Hershey chocolates and three marshmallows. Like damn, you couldn’t spare anything better? It was cheap af. We didn’t even bother to make any, so while I sat impatiently for the launch I ate just the marshmallows lol. We got there close to 7pm because I didn’t feel it was necessary to get there earlier. I honestly have no idea what you would have done from 3pm-7pm. I just wanted to get there an hour early to secure parking, and find a spot to sit down. It was quite packed when we got there, but we managed to squeeze into a small area. Unfortunately, there were parts of the grounds that were still wet and muddy from the past week’s storms. We also got a dollar store marker in our kit, but it was too dark at that point to draw or write anything on the lantern. I didn’t really have any intentions to, and it looked like everyone around us didn’t either lol. Honestly, I wouldn’t want to risk ripping the lanterns before the launch anyway.
When the time came we weren’t able to get either of our lanterns to float, and so we missed the window of opportunity for a photo with the lanterns in the sky. I didn’t know launching paper lanterns would be so difficult. In reality, we really should have waited for the sky to fill up with lanterns, took photos, and then tried to launch our own. The paper lanterns are a lot larger than I had initially thought, and so it took a while for them to actually fill up with hot air once you actually got a decent flame going, which was a task in itself. It was so hard to light the lanterns with the tiki torches and the matches they provided sucked. When we starting to get a decent flame going, the wind blew it out lol. I would honestly recommend bringing your own lighter to save time. Sadly, we failed lol. The ladies next us were nice enough to try and help us get ours to fly up, but even then they wouldn’t go. A lot of people around us were having the same difficulties too. It wasn’t a 1,2,3 affair, it took a good amount of time for the lanterns to fill with hot air.
It’s a pretty dangerous event too. I’m suprised no one caught on fire. Some lanterns were quite deceiving. The would look like they were ready to float up into the sky, but would actually end up going back down and crashing into people’s areas as they were occupied with launching their own lanterns. One lantern landed near my Kate Spade backpack. I almost died. It reminded me of being in general admission during a metal concert where you’re trying to pay attention to the band onstage while simultaneously dodging crowd surfers so you don’t get kicked in the face. Now, I truly understand why you sign waivers for this. Moral of the story, stay on the outskirts of the crowd and don’t bring your expensive Kate Spade backpacks to the festival.
Overall, this event is very overpriced for what it is. Both the tickets and parking fee are highway robbery for a “festival” where you’re doing nothing for 5 hours. We didn’t bother going to the food booths, but I’m pretty sure they were expensive too. So, it’s rather absurded that they were not allowing coolers. Honestly though, who’s really checking? They didn’t bother checking tickets. Wtf. What’s even more baffling is people actually paid for VIP. The event doesn’t seem very organized, and there was little help in getting your lanterns up.
Now that I know what to expect, I have a game plan in place. Since I didn’t even bother to transfer my tickets, I’m just going to ask for entry into next years event so we can redeem ourselves. The Asians across from us had fairy lights that Miguel has. I was like smart move, I’m going copy that. Then, the group next to us had sparklers. I’m going to copy that too. lmao. Maybe, I’ll finally get a photo of me there too.
When we walked in, no one asked for tickets. A worker literally just gave us wristbands. Why did I pay for this? Wtf. I basically paid $50 for a paper lantern, and a shitty s’mores kit. They give you a mini pack of graham crackers, two mini Hershey chocolates and three marshmallows. Like damn, you couldn’t spare anything better? It was cheap af. We didn’t even bother to make any, so while I sat impatiently for the launch I ate just the marshmallows lol. We got there close to 7pm because I didn’t feel it was necessary to get there earlier. I honestly have no idea what you would have done from 3pm-7pm. I just wanted to get there an hour early to secure parking, and find a spot to sit down. It was quite packed when we got there, but we managed to squeeze into a small area. Unfortunately, there were parts of the grounds that were still wet and muddy from the past week’s storms. We also got a dollar store marker in our kit, but it was too dark at that point to draw or write anything on the lantern. I didn’t really have any intentions to, and it looked like everyone around us didn’t either lol. Honestly, I wouldn’t want to risk ripping the lanterns before the launch anyway.
When the time came we weren’t able to get either of our lanterns to float, and so we missed the window of opportunity for a photo with the lanterns in the sky. I didn’t know launching paper lanterns would be so difficult. In reality, we really should have waited for the sky to fill up with lanterns, took photos, and then tried to launch our own. The paper lanterns are a lot larger than I had initially thought, and so it took a while for them to actually fill up with hot air once you actually got a decent flame going, which was a task in itself. It was so hard to light the lanterns with the tiki torches and the matches they provided sucked. When we starting to get a decent flame going, the wind blew it out lol. I would honestly recommend bringing your own lighter to save time. Sadly, we failed lol. The ladies next us were nice enough to try and help us get ours to fly up, but even then they wouldn’t go. A lot of people around us were having the same difficulties too. It wasn’t a 1,2,3 affair, it took a good amount of time for the lanterns to fill with hot air.
It’s a pretty dangerous event too. I’m suprised no one caught on fire. Some lanterns were quite deceiving. The would look like they were ready to float up into the sky, but would actually end up going back down and crashing into people’s areas as they were occupied with launching their own lanterns. One lantern landed near my Kate Spade backpack. I almost died. It reminded me of being in general admission during a metal concert where you’re trying to pay attention to the band onstage while simultaneously dodging crowd surfers so you don’t get kicked in the face. Now, I truly understand why you sign waivers for this. Moral of the story, stay on the outskirts of the crowd and don’t bring your expensive Kate Spade backpacks to the festival.
Overall, this event is very overpriced for what it is. Both the tickets and parking fee are highway robbery for a “festival” where you’re doing nothing for 5 hours. We didn’t bother going to the food booths, but I’m pretty sure they were expensive too. So, it’s rather absurded that they were not allowing coolers. Honestly though, who’s really checking? They didn’t bother checking tickets. Wtf. What’s even more baffling is people actually paid for VIP. The event doesn’t seem very organized, and there was little help in getting your lanterns up.
Now that I know what to expect, I have a game plan in place. Since I didn’t even bother to transfer my tickets, I’m just going to ask for entry into next years event so we can redeem ourselves. The Asians across from us had fairy lights that Miguel has. I was like smart move, I’m going copy that. Then, the group next to us had sparklers. I’m going to copy that too. lmao. Maybe, I’ll finally get a photo of me there too.
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