Rise Lantern Festival

Las Vegas is home to an annual celebration known as the Rise Lantern Festival. This festival began in 2014 and has been growing ever since! The Rise Festival is held in the Mojave Desert each year during the first weekend of October.

The festival takes place on Thursday and Friday nights, October 3 and 4, 2025, to give as many people as possible the chance to experience this unique, inspiring event. Rise is the largest lantern release in the world – there’s truly nothing that compares!

Imagine a scene where tens of thousands of glowing lanterns light up the night sky, the surrounding desert offering an almost magical remote location as the backdrop. Every year, the Rise Festival Las Vegas has people talking about how the lanterns look like stars in the desert night sky. 

The Rise Lantern Festival has been an annual event for several years, drawing massive crowds from Las Vegas and locations that are a little further away, like California. Each guest who attends gets two paper lanterns, a marker, and a mat to sit on. Then it’s encouraged that everyone writes a message on their lantern before it’s released into the sky. 

The message on each lantern makes the event more meaningful, and often deeply personal. You can write down a favorite quote, a prayer, a personal goal, your dreams, sign your name, or any special message your heart desires!

When To Arrive 

The Rise Festival goes from around 3 PM to about 10 PM. To get the full experience, plan to arrive mid-afternoon, between 3 and 4 PM. This gives you a chance to find a good spot to sit and explore everything the festival has to offer. There’s live music on stage, Ascension DJs, food trucks, and a great community of uplifting individuals. 

Around 7 PM, before the sun drops, attendees are walked through the process of lighting their lanterns before releasing them in unison. Then you simply wait, enjoying the company of the powerfully connected Rise community, until the time comes to release the lanterns with each participant’s unique story into the sky. 

You don’t have to worry about lugging a bunch of extras to the event. The festival is designed to provide everything you need! Guests are permitted to carry a small bag or purse with personal items. Security checks are done on each bag taken into the festival. Larger items like coolers and chairs are not permitted.

Then as the sun sets, the sight of thousands of lanterns lighting up the sky at the same time is truly indescribable! You have to experience it yourself to understand just how magical it is. Live music is played to coincide with the lantern release, and there’s a feeling of being powerfully connected to everyone around you. This is an experience that you really don’t want to miss. 

From 7-10 PM, guests continue to enjoy the festival, watch the lanterns float through the sky,  and release more lanterns throughout the evening.

Ticket prices vary depending on what day you’re attending and when the tickets are purchased. Tickets are not yet available for 2025.

Ticket prices go up to $99 – $119 for Friday and $119 – $169 for Saturday (pricing is subject to change, so check the website for the most up-to-date pricing information). Children’s tickets are available at a discounted rate, and kids 3 and under are free!

The Rise Lantern Festival is held in the Mojave Desert each year. The Mojave Desert spans more than 54,000 miles, though, so let’s get a little more specific. 25 miles south of Las Vegas is an area of the desert known as Jean Dry Lake Bed. This is where the magic happens! 

The festival is accessed by taking I-15 to exit 12 to Jena Goodsprings if you’re coming from the south and exit 25 to Sloan if you’re coming from the north. After taking the exit, there will be clear signage leading towards the festival.

Parking is available at Jean Dry Lake Bed upon arrival at the festival. A parking pass costs $30 per car, truck, or SUV. RVs cannot be parked at the festival. Prepare ahead of time for driving to and from the event because rideshares, such as Uber and Lyft, are not typically available that far out into the desert. Shuttle passes are available. 

If you’re not a Las Vegas native, you’ll need a place to stay after the festival has ended. Rise partners with MGM each year to offer festival attendees a special rate for their stay at an MGM Hotel! You can view a complete list of participating hotels and book at a discounted rate by visiting https://risefestival.com/event-details/. Hotels book quickly for the weekend of the festival, so it’s recommended to book at the time you purchase your ticket.

Of all the festivals and events in Las Vegas, Rise offers something truly magical and unique. Lanterns with each participant’s unique story float through the air, accompanied by music and the feeling of community. The Nevada desert has never seemed more beautiful. Don’t miss your chance to fill the sky with wonder at Rise.