I always imagined that if I ever found myself sitting in the middle of an empty field, under the blazing sun, outside of Las Vegas, that something had gone horribly wrong and I was going to be the next occupant of one of the many talked-about but rarely found “holes in the desert.”
Instead, I was pleasantly surprised at this particular occasion, because I was at the 2019 Las Vegas Lights Fest. (It’s actually in Littlefield, Arizona, which is right outside Mesquite, Nevada, which itself, is an hour north of Las Vegas.)
There is plenty to love about this event and a few improvements that desperately need to happen if it’s going to be held in the same place any time in the future.
At this festival, you and your family, along with thousands of other people, recreate the lantern scene from Disney’s “Tangled.” No idea what I’m talking about? Go ahead and take a minute to watch this:
It’s a pretty awesome cinematic moment, and I’m sure if you have kids or if you’re a big kid you know this movie. My daughter memorized this entire movie when she was 5. I know the scene well.
The Lights Fest team has created an entire family day out of recreating the magic in this scene.
There’s music provided by local and semi-local musicians, food trucks and plenty of merchandise to buy. Whoever organizes this knows how to push the merchandise. Again, we were sitting out in a field, under the sun, and wouldn’t you know they had The Lights Fest umbrellas for $20 a pop. Genius.
Tickets can be bought at varying levels depending on how early you buy them. I got them the night they went on sale and it was $25 per ticket which wasn’t bad. Each ticket secured you entry into the event and a lantern that you can decorate, or write a wish on, or a prayer or whatever you wanted. I think we also got The Lights Fest rubber wrist band too. A nice little keepsake.
A very small road brought us to a dirt track which usually hosts dirt bikes I’m guessing. Parking was in a dirt and grass field via a single entry point (more on this in a second). Gates opened at 3:30pm and the first musical act didn’t hit the stage until close to 5pm, so there was a bit of sitting around listening to someone’s Spotify playlist. The acts themselves were pretty basic. No offense to the artists, but it was mainly acoustic covers of other songs with an original song sprinkled in. Believe me, I wasn’t expecting Springsteen to rock the crowd, but one guy played an almost lullaby version of Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You.”
I honestly almost fell asleep.
That’s a very minor thing though. This is more of a family and friends type of event. People were camped out, having a good time and that’s all that really mattered.
Night set in and the moment came. The host gave everyone simple instructions on how to light your lantern and make it fly. And all of us, armed with :30 seconds of knowledge on how to light something on fire, did just that.
Kids under 14 or 15 should definitely use a parents help. Because this is fire. Fire is hot.
But then…
The Lights Fest @ Las Vegas 2019 / Full Metal Traveler 
The Lights Fest @ Las Vegas 2019 / Full Metal Traveler The Lights Fest @ Las Vegas 2019 / Full Metal Traveler
Magic.
It’s a one of a kind experience that no one in your family will soon forget. For a few moments, everyone is a kid again, smiling, laughing, looking to the stars in wonderment.
Take your time. Live, alert, in that moment and send each lantern up one at a time if you want to. There’s no time limit.
I got my lantern lit and sent up to the sky after I watched my son and daughter light theirs. We took pictures. We laughed. This is what the entire was about. The Lights Fest crew plays a curated Spotify playlist which includes, of course, the song above from “Tangled” as well as other family friendly tunes.
We took our time watching other people light their lanterns, full of prayers and wishes of good fortune and thoughts of those who have passed on make their way into the sky.
For those wondering what happens to these lanterns, they do tend to burn out after a minute or so, climbing a few hundred feet at most before the fire extinguishes. We also saw organized clean up crews man the roads, all working to pick up any downed lanterns.
After about 15 minutes, most of the lanterns have been lit and this is the end of the festival. People start filing out.
Thousands of people. Leaving a small remote area. Onto a single lane road. With one point of entry and exit. All at once.
This is the part that kind of killed the magic.
This festival travels around and is hosted in other cities across the nation. I can’t speak on those cities, only this one. And to put it nicely… leaving was a nightmare.
The festival essentially ended by 8:30pm. We didn’t get out of the grass parking lot until 10pm. An hour and a half to even get out of the parking lot. We’re some of the lucky ones with older kids. I can’t imagine having 3-4 tired or hungry kids in my car, possibly throwing tantrums, while not moving for an hour and a half.
Yikes.
No, a small barely-on-the-map town doesn’t have the infrastructure to suddenly accommodate an influx or 3,000 people. But there wasn’t one cop directing the flow of traffic or managing the Mad Max populous that popped up in that field. People were honking, yelling, cursing out other drivers. Offering to sell their children for bread.
Yes, I’m being only slightly dramatic.
I would definitely check the entry and exit plans of this event going forward. If there was any sort of real emergency, with that many people… man, I can’t imagine.
The ending notwithstanding, it was a great event. One I highly recommend attending at least once.
By the time we made it home, no one was thinking about parking or traffic. They were only talking about the experience we had and the memories we made.
This is one of those experiences that, in my opinion, is worth any headache.
