We (The Mister, The Kid and I) attended the RISE Lantern Festival outside of Las Vegas at the dry lake bed located in Jean, NV. It was an awesome, breathtakingly beautiful sight. However, the whole experience was marred by the lack of organization and the transportation nightmare.
It began with our wait in the traffic that was building up on the I-15 South exit to the Gold Strike Hotel & Gambling Hall. We parked and proceeded to follow the line of people snaking around the parking lot for the next hour. This was the line to get on the shuttle to the event.
The Kid was wiped out before we even got there. I somehow didn't realize that when you left the shuttle, there was a 500 yard trek through sand and rocks to the event location. Not the easiest trek for those who elected to wear wedge sandals, flip flops or heels. I felt sorry for those with babies.
The view was worth the walk. However, trying to find the location of the section you were supposed to be in was difficult. Signage was not clear and I had to ask multiple volunteeers for directions to our "seats" which were yoga mats. The lantern lighting and release was scheduled for 7:30pm but it was delayed until 8:30pm due to transportation issues. We wrote messages on the lanterns while we waited. I was disappointed that the organizers assumed everyone knew how to light the ground lanterns and that they would all light properly. Of course, ours didn't light and neither did the next one that we moved to. In the end, we lit the fuel source directly to get our lantern off the ground. By then, lanterns were released and floating upward.
We left early to catch a shuttle back to our car but there was a massive crowd of thousands who had the same idea. The 500 yard walk through the dimly lit desert made it difficult and hoardes of rude people cutting to the front of the line cause an uproar and chanting of "get in line". One woman had the nerve to flip us the bird as she walked past the line. In the end, it took us 3 hours to get on a return shuttle. I hear people waited for 5 hours or longer and that the shuttle contract ended at 11pm so shuttles left the site empty while people were stuck in the desert. Apparently the 100% retrieved lanterns did not get retrieved which is a question I had before attending. It was pretty awesome to see but definitely not worth the effort or the wait.
