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Diversified "Lantern Festival +" nighttime consumption and new formats, refreshing the new trend of festival tourism consumption

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2025-02-07

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Editor-in-Chief | Yang Ming

Editor | Jing Xiangyuan

From Source | China Illumination Committee of Cultural Tourism

Lantern festivals carry rich historical and cultural connotations, satisfying people's social and entertainment needs during festivals, and also have educational significance. At lantern festivals, people can appreciate beautiful lights with family and friends, participate in various interactive games and performances, experience different cultures, and enjoy the festive atmosphere. For many people, visiting lantern festivals has become an indispensable way to celebrate festivals, allowing them to feel the excitement and joy of the festivals, and deepening their understanding and love of traditional culture.

Popular Creation Trends of Festival Lantern Festivals

(1) Lantern Festival + Technology

Currently, many lantern festivals are beginning to incorporate new technological means, such as laser projection, holographic technology, and VR technology, adding more interactivity and viewing appeal to the lantern festivals. Some lantern festivals use laser projection technology to project gorgeous light patterns onto ancient buildings or natural landscapes, creating a dreamlike visual effect. At the same time, VR technology is also used in lantern festivals, allowing viewers to experience the charm of the lantern festival through VR devices.

(2) Lantern Festival + Performing Arts

Performing arts activities can better showcase traditional culture and local characteristics. Through various forms such as performances, explanations, and interactions, the viewing appeal and entertainment value of the lantern festival can be increased. In traditional lantern festivals, people would organize colorful performing arts activities, such as dragon and lion dances, opera performances, folk dances, etc.; while modern lantern festivals incorporate more immersive performances, immersive performances, or script-based tours, allowing tourists to deeply experience the theme culture of the lantern festival. These activities not only enrich the content of the lantern festival but also allow the audience to feel the charm of traditional culture while appreciating the beauty of the lights.

Shenzhen "Heaven Official's Blessing" Animation Thousand Lights Fantasy Night Theme Activity | Source: Shenzhen Cultural Tourism

(3) Lantern Festival + IP

In recent years, lantern groups and light shows of major popular IPs have become a highlight of lantern festivals. These works showcase the charm and characteristics of traditional Chinese culture and trendy culture from multiple perspectives, attracting the attention of a large number of young audiences. At the same time, lantern festivals also enhance the quality and brand influence of the lantern festival by incorporating modern design elements and technological trends to create light works with a sense of the times and innovation.

(4) Lantern Festival + Comprehensive Commercial Activities

During the lantern festival, setting up various stalls has become the norm. Merchants sell handicrafts, specialty snacks, folk games, etc., allowing audiences to experience local culture and characteristics while watching the lantern festival. This integration not only increases the audience's stay time and consumption opportunities but also enlivens the city's festive atmosphere, allowing audiences to deeply experience the lantern festival culture.

"Lantern Festival +" Lights Up the Festive Atmosphere

(1) Lantern Festival + VR:

Shanghai Yuyuan Garden "Classic of Mountains and Seas" Themed Lantern Immersive VR Large Space

2024-2025 Yuyuan Lantern Festival Nine-Curve Bridge Lantern Group | Source: Public Network

The "Classic of Mountains and Seas" themed lantern project is a joint IP of Yuyuan Garden and Landmark Mark. Based on the mythological stories of "Classic of Mountains and Seas," the "Mountain and Sea Wonder Yuyuan VR Large Space" uses VR technology to recreate a world full of mysterious ancient creatures and fantastic landscapes. Players can see unique landforms such as ancient forests, stone forests, and swamps in the virtual space, interact closely with mythical beasts such as the Peng, Qilin, and Luan bird from the "Classic of Mountains and Seas," and experience the charm of ancient Chinese mythology. In addition, the project also provides VR seat experiences, allowing users to enjoy a visual feast while also feeling more realistic interaction through the dynamic feedback of the seat. The "Classic of Mountains and Seas" themed lantern project not only injects a unique technological core into the cultural IP, allowing audiences to experience the charm of millennial culture in immersive light and shadow and interaction, but also breaks the limitations of time and space through the continuous operation and replication of digital lantern festivals, conveying the oriental aesthetics of the Yuyuan Lantern Festival to tourists in a new form.

(2) Lantern Festival + Animation IP:

Shenzhen "Heaven Official's Blessing" Animation Thousand Lights Fantasy Night Theme Activity

The Shenzhen "Heaven Official's Blessing" lantern festival is a grand event that combines the national animation IP with modern lantern festival art. The lantern festival is held in the Qianhai Happy Bay in Shenzhen, and the event period covers multiple important festivals such as New Year's Day, Spring Festival, and Lantern Festival from December 21, 2024, to February 14, 2025.

Shenzhen "Heaven Official's Blessing" Animation Thousand Lights Fantasy Night Theme Activity | Source: Shenzhen Cultural Tourism

The lantern festival is themed on the "Heaven Official's Blessing" animation, carefully creating multiple themed scenes, such as the Thousand Lights View, the Heavenly Rhyme Porcelain Blessing Lantern Group, Three Thousand Bright Lights, Red Curtains Reflecting, and Spirit Butterfly Leading the Way. Each scene is filled with a strong national style and charm, as if transporting the audience into the world of the animation. Among them, the Thousand Lights View is located in the Happy Bay Ferris wheel square, a palace built by the character Hua Cheng for Xie Lian; Three Thousand Bright Lights recreates a famous scene from the animation, with thousands of bright lights illuminating the night sky of the Ferris wheel square; while the Heavenly Rhyme Porcelain Blessing Lantern Group combines the Zigong lantern form, presenting a unique artistic charm.

In addition, during the lantern festival, there are multiple activities such as national style and charm interactive performances, fan welfare activities, and promotional discounts, meeting consumers' needs in terms of social interaction, spiritual culture, and emotional transmission. Tourists can purchase related peripherals of the "Heaven Official's Blessing" animation here and have the opportunity to ride the Ferris wheel in the four-color themed carriages of the Thousand Lights Fantasy Night, appreciating the exclusive light show of Heaven Official that lights up simultaneously with the exhibition area, and feeling the famous elements of the "Heaven Official's Blessing" animation.

(3) Lantern Festival + Regional Culture:

Nanchong Lantern Fair

The Nanchong Lantern Fair is a large-scale immersive lantern fair that takes Jialing River culture as its core and integrates Nanchong's Three Kingdoms culture, silk culture, and Spring Festival culture. The event is held in the Impression Jialing River Zhongba Wetland Park. It is the first large-scale night tour comprehensive cultural and tourism experience product in Nanchong in nearly 30 years, and it is currently the largest investment, most creative, and most immersive comprehensive cultural and recreational project in Northeast Sichuan.

The lantern festival created immersive themed scenes and activity areas using forms such as "lights + scenery," "music + dance," "food + drinks," "shopping + photography," and "plays + games." The event included nearly 100 themed lanterns, nearly 1,000 lanterns of various sizes, and over 100 lantern festival activities, themed food exhibitions and intangible cultural heritage displays. These lanterns and light decorations were themed on Nanchong's traditional culture, such as the Silk Goddess and Cyber Zhang Fei, showcasing Nanchong's rich culture of the Spring Festival, the Jialing River, and silk.

Silk Goddess themed lantern group effect diagram | Source: Banyan

In addition, the lantern festival also set up three major experience sections: "script lantern festival," "themed parade," and "boutique performances." Tourists can participate in NPC script missions, watch themed parades and boutique performances to experience Nanchong's cultural charm. At the same time, the park's more than 100 daily performances, such as "Feihong crosses the river, corridor bridge drum dance" and "Wukong mythology, Journey to the West legend," also brought rich and colorful audio-visual enjoyment to tourists.

The Nanchong Lantern Festival is not only a visual feast but also a cultural journey. It allows tourists to appreciate beautiful lanterns while deeply understanding and experiencing Nanchong's traditional culture and modern city charm. The event aims to promote traditional cultural brands, create urban cultural tourism landmarks, further stimulate the vitality of Nanchong's cultural tourism industry, and enrich the cultural life of citizens and tourists during the festival.

(IV) Lantern Festival + Performances:

Xiangyang Guan Sheng Zigong Intangible Cultural Heritage Lantern Fair

The Xiangyang Guan Sheng Zigong Intangible Cultural Heritage Lantern Fair is a festival lantern fair that integrates traditional culture, intangible cultural heritage art, and modern entertainment elements. The event is held in Xiangyang Guan Sheng Ancient Town, with Zigong lanterns as the core, combined with Xiangyang's local culture and the historical background of the Three Kingdoms, showcasing a series of exquisite and creative lantern works and performances.

Xiangyang Guan Sheng Ancient Town Lantern Fair Tour Diagram | Source: Xiangyang Cultural Tourism

During this lantern fair, Guan Sheng Ancient Town launched a 6-hour immersive performance activity. Various corners of the ancient town were filled with NPCs, dressed as various characters from the Three Kingdoms period, performing classic Three Kingdoms stories. Tourists approaching the NPCs would trigger character story plots; and since the Three Kingdoms characters are different, the personality characteristics they show in their conversations are also different. The ancient town also has fixed performance venues, staging exciting segments related to Three Kingdoms stories such as "Witty Three Kingdoms," "Shu Han Glory," and "Water Drowning Seven Armies." There are also integrated activities such as intangible cultural heritage fish lanterns and intangible cultural heritage kettle performances, fully creating a Chinese festival atmosphere.

In addition, as a characteristic scenic spot, Guan Sheng Ancient Town allows tourists to not only appreciate colorful lanterns and watch immersive performances, but also experience the lively atmosphere of a traditional temple fair, taste local snacks, participate in cultural interactive games, and gain a deeper understanding of Xiangyang's history and culture.

Xiangyang Guan Sheng Ancient Town "Wolong Yin" Performance | Source: Xiangyang Cultural Tourism

(V) Lantern Festival + "Night Culture" Complex:

Wenyu River Park Beijing Thousand Lights Night

"Wenyu River Park Beijing Thousand Lights Night" covers an area of 600 mu (approximately 40 hectares). It is a New Year's lantern festival specially created for the citizens of the capital. "Beijing Thousand Lights Night" aims to become a "net-red landmark project for Beijing's night culture and a 'spiritual New Year's Eve dinner' for Chinese people." The lantern festival has upgraded its products from eight dimensions: "lantern groups, space, traffic flow, ticketing, commerce, performances, entertainment, and experience," aiming to create a top-level lantern festival experience integrating sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.

As the largest immersive lantern festival in the north, "Beijing Thousand Lights Night" is not just a traditional lantern festival, but an immersive "night culture" complex integrating "eating, drinking, traveling, shopping, and appreciating." This year's lantern festival draws inspiration from traditional culture such as astronomy, ancient architecture, calligraphy and painting, mythology, murals, porcelain, silk, and Chinese tea, combining it with the intangible cultural heritage skills of Zigong lanterns, which enjoy the reputation of "the number one lantern in the world." The cultural heritage is very profound.

Beautiful lantern groups at Beijing Thousand Lights Night | Source: Public Network

This year's Beijing Thousand Lights Night cleverly integrates commercial shopping, wonderful performances, fun entertainment, and in-depth experience projects to create a one-stop entertainment feast. The lantern festival not only features national style dance performances and folk music performances, but also folk activities such as lion dances and magic shows, and combines 3D mapping to create a futuristic sci-fi parade. Various activities alternate on stage, repeating in cycles, giving the audience a double impact of vision and hearing.

In addition, Beijing Thousand Lights Night also offers various local snacks, international cuisine, brand cultural and creative products, Hanfu travel photography, and other consumption experiences. It has designed sightseeing routes, and you can participate in game activities to check in and receive benefits. As a national tide New Year's Eve event, "Beijing Thousand Lights Night" has created a new night-time consumption scene for young people, igniting a new "night" trend in urban consumption.

Travel photography area design at the lantern festival | Source: Public Network

How to make lantern festivals break away from homogeneity

I believe that after seeing many lantern festivals, people will fall into aesthetic fatigue from homogeneous lantern festivals. As a grand event held only once a year, how can we maintain the freshness of lantern festival culture and keep it fresh for tourists?

(I) Deeply excavate cultural connotations and highlight local characteristics

Each region has its unique historical background and cultural characteristics. Lantern festivals can deeply excavate these elements and showcase them through lighting, decoration, and performances. For example, in historically and culturally significant cities, ancient scenes can be recreated to create night tours with historical charm; in areas where ethnic minorities live, ethnic customs and traditional festivals can be showcased.

(II) Innovative design concepts to create unique visual effects

Break away from the single form of traditional lantern festivals and try using different lighting materials, color combinations, and layout methods. Use changes in light and shadow, dynamic effects, etc., to create dreamlike night scenes, giving the audience a strong visual impact. Or integrate modern art styles into lantern festival design, such as abstract art, minimalism, etc., treating lighting installations as works of art to create unique lighting works. You can also invite well-known artists or designers to participate in lantern festival creation to enhance the artistic value and reputation of the lantern festival.

(III) Enhance interactive experiences and improve visitor participation

Modern technology, such as 3D projection and AR technology, can be used to present traditional culture to the audience in a novel way, constantly innovating. For example, introducing touch-sensitive lights and interactive projections allows the audience to change the lighting effects through touch and movement. Setting up fun interactive games and challenging tasks allows the audience to enjoy themselves through participation. Alternatively, through the interaction of light and music, an immersive cultural experience can be created, allowing the audience to feel the resonance between light and people while appreciating the lights.

Editor's Afterword

As a spiritual and cultural bond, the lantern festival connects people's emotions and bridges the past and the present. In the future, lantern festivals may not be limited to traditional display and viewing modes, but will appear in the public eye in a more cutting-edge, interactive, and immersive form. It will become a comprehensive experience venue integrating technology, art, culture, and education. It will not only satisfy people's pursuit of beauty and entertainment needs, but also inspire people's interest in and respect for traditional culture, promoting cultural inheritance and innovation.

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