Rise Festival
DETAILS:
Location: Located in the Mojave Desert 25 miles south of Las Vegas on the Jean Dry Lake bed.
Hours of Operation: Rise Festival is a two-day event typically held on the first weekend of October. Each day runs from 3PM to 10PM. Various music artists perform throughout the day leading up to two synchronized lantern launches at approximately 7:15PM & 7:45PM (dependent on weather conditions).
Parking: Paid parking lot available on site. Shuttle service out of Las Vegas is also available for purchase through the festival.
Cost (for Rise Festival 2019):
$129 Adult / $69 Child (ages 4-10). Rise Festival also offers three tiers of early bird pricing at $79, $89, and $99 depending on how early you purchase. Each ticket comes with two lanterns, a straw-mat to sit on, and a marker to write personal messages on your lantern. These items are to be picked up onsite once you arrive to the festival.
$29 for parking lot pass. This purchase must be made online and in advance. Onsite purchase is not available.
$39 for round trip shuttle service out of Las Vegas. Again, this purchase must be made online and in advance. Onsite purchase is not available. Shuttles depart approximately every 30 minutes from 2:30PM to 6:30PM. Shuttles return to the Las Vegas from 8:30PM to 11PM and leave continuously once full. If you’re staying in Las Vegas for the festival and are anywhere near the shuttle location (Rise 2019 shuttle location was at Mandalay Bay), I highly recommend this option. We found our shuttle experience to be well organized, convenient, and hassle free. Allow for an hour between waiting to board the shuttle and stepping off at the venue.
Additional lanterns can be reserved during your ticket purchase for $12 each or at the venue for $15. In my opinion, the two lanterns provided with the base purchase is the perfect number to participate with. We never felt like our experience would’ve been enriched with additional lanterns, and since the launching of each lantern does take some time (and a lot of patience), lighting any more than two might have taken away from enjoying the amazing view above.
Food, beverages, and merchandise are available on site for purchase.
Time Commitment: I would suggest committing 3 hours minimum to enjoy the festival fully.
Miscellaneous:
See their website below (under “resources”) for current schedule, rates, and details.
Rise Festival is a two-day event, but your ticket only gives you admittance to one day.
In regards to pets, only service dogs are allowed.
Blankets, chairs, coolers, strollers, tripods, wagons, pillows or umbrellas are not allowed into the festival.
Lyft, Uber, taxis and any other rideshare options are not allowed access to the venue due to the remote area that the festival is held in, and the logistics of the traffic plan.
If there is rain or sustained winds over 10 mph, the lantern release may be delayed and possibly cancelled. If cancellation occurs before the gates open, participants will be refunded for the tickets (not including processing fees). If the gates open but are unable to release the lanterns, participants will receive a 50% refund of the ticket price (not including processing fees). Refunds will not be possible for tickets purchased from 3rd party resellers.
There are 8 sections to choose from when purchasing tickets, grouped by direction (North, South, East, West, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest). I have to admit that I really scrutinized this believing that there must be an optimal section to view the festival from. But rest assured that every section provides an equally amazing view so don’t stress too much trying to pick the “right” section. I suppose if any of the music artists are really important to you, arrive early so that you can be closer to the stage, but the stage itself is 360 degrees making it fully viewable from all directions and the sound system is great whether you’re in the front or back of your section.
Rise 2019 participants also received cover-free VIP entrance into the club; On The Record, located at the Park MGM Hotel. This was a nice little perk provided by the festival and a great way to end what was already a fantastic night!
Rise Festival should not be confused with the “Lights Festival” that runs on a similar premise. Based on my own experience with that event, the "Lights Festival” is an inferior knockoff of Rise Festival with a trouble history of business.
Finally, one of the main concerns I generally had regarding the festival was its ecological impact on the surrounding environment. What happens to all those lanterns?! According to the festival organizers, they take sustainability very seriously and retrieve 100% of the lanterns from the surrounding desert as well as any pre-existing litter found in the area, and the lanterns themselves are 100% biodegradable. They also use carbon offsets on every vehicle that is used in the setup and cleanup of the festival to help facilitate a “leave no trace” philosophy.
It took several years to finally experience Rise Festival in person, and spoiler alert, it was worth every minute of that wait! It all began with one of those random videos you catch online that featured an armada of illuminated lanterns floating off in the night sky like a newly formed mega-constellation of stars. I remember being absolutely mesmerized by that video and immediately began researching every detail I could find on this spectacular occurrence. That’s when Rise Festival, billed as the largest lantern release event in the world, first came onto my radar. To my pleasant surprise I would also discover that it was held just outside Las Vegas in the Mojave Desert which made it a completely doable excursion from Los Angeles. Unfortunately though, that year’s festival had already come and gone. Undeterred, we made arrangements to attend the festival in 2018 and were literally preparing our lanterns for launch when a thunderstorm rolled in (in the Vegas area? Really?!), forcing the festival organizers to cancel the event. We made the best of our time in Vegas that weekend, but definitely left disappointed that we had missed out on the launch. To the festival’s credit, even though we hadn’t purchased the weather protection plan offered that year, they provided complimentary tickets to a make-up date scheduled during the 2019 festival or discounted rates towards one of the regularly scheduled days. This olive branch was much appreciated and proved how much they value their customers as a business organization, but we were still leery of a return visit solely because this experience made us realize how weather-dependent the event was and there was no guarantee that there wouldn’t be more weather issues if we tried again.
But one of Rise Festival’s core tenants is how it’s the sum total of each participant's unique story, making the Rise experience both deeply personal and powerfully connected as a community. And while each lantern means something different to each participant, together they provide a collective voice to our individual hopes and dreams. With that hope in mind, we decided to attend Rise Festival 2019 and our second time around was certainly the stuff of dreams. When you arrive, you’ll make the short walk from the parking area to the obligatory security check. Once through, you’ll have your ticket scanned and then given your lantern kit. From there, you’ll pass by several photo ops with Rise signage as you make your way to your designated section. They don’t really check which section you’ve been assigned to so I suppose you could set up anywhere but why not save everyone the hassle of overcrowding a particular section since they’ve accounted for that number during your original purchase. Each section is outfitted with tiki-style torches that designate a “station” for each group of festival attendees and each station is first come-first served. Once you get situated, you’ll probably spend most of your initial time crafting whatever personal message(s) you want to write on each of your lanterns. I’m positive that I wasn't alone in using this time to reflect on life and calling attention to the people, memories, and ideals that were most significant to me in writing before waiting for the first of two synchronized launches.
Since Rise Festival is also technically a music festival, you’ll enjoy several music acts to pass along the time, each one specifically curated to enhance the meditative and etherial tone of the festival. Before you know it, you’ll be instructed over the speakers to light your torch in unison (matches provided in your kit). One by one, you’ll watch each torch come to life until every section is outlined in flames. It’s a sight to behold in it of itself, but is only a precursor of what is looming on the horizon. Literally. Now fully engulfed by the night sky, you’ll next be instructed to light your first lantern in preparation for the first launch which occurs around 7:15PM. As with most things in life, the key to lighting your lantern effectively is patience. Using your torch, you’ll want to make sure that you spend enough time burning the fuel cell of your lantern so that it ignites fully. Once lit, you’ll need to let the lantern expand to capacity with hot air. You’ll be inclined to move quickly through this process, but I promise that your patience will be rewarded. I saw a good number of people who had problems with lift-off (myself included) because they didn’t allow their lantern to properly heat up all the way. This is probably a good time to mention that prepping your lantern is at least a two-person job until the lantern is ready for launch. And because of the afore mentioned issues, you’ll do well to keep your head on a swivel in order to avoid any rogue lanterns flying in your direction. We saw numerous instances where a half-inflated lantern almost fell onto someone’s head, flames and all!
With lanterns properly lit (hopefully), the countdown begins to the first launch. What occurs next will absolutely take your breath away as a sea of glowing lanterns majestically rise into the night sky. It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that the sight of these lanterns gracefully floating off towards the heavens is one of the most impressive displays I have ever witnessed in my life. And the best part is, you get to watch it all over again during the second launch that occurs half an hour later. No words, pictures, or videos will ever do this event complete justice. You have to experience Rise Festival with your own eyes to understand the magic that occurs that night. If you believe in bucket lists, this one is 100% worth the add.
RESOURCES:
Rise Festival website.
