🏮Asian Lantern Festival lights up Central Florida Zoo with all new structures

SANFORD, Fla. – It’s a holiday event combining animals and culture.

The Asian Lantern Festival: Into The Wild is underway at the Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens in Sanford.

You’ll notice some new additions to the animals already roaming the attraction. By day, you’ll spot reptiles, large birds, even some prehistoric creatures.

By night, the structures come alive and light up with movement.

“It’s an awesome display of color of light, movement and even sound. There’s a ton of interactive lanterns this year so adults and children can get involved and have a good experience as a family,” said Zoo Director Stephanie Williams.

Dozens of brand new handmade lantern displays are illuminated with thousands of LED lights.

[ENTER TO WIN FREE TICKETS TO THE ASIAN LANTERN FESTIVAL AT THE CENTRAL FLORIDA ZOO!]

Now in it’s fourth year, the event is attracting more and more visitors.

“The first year we saw about 40,000 people, last year we saw about 93,000 people so this has quickly become one of the most popular holiday events in Seminole County,” said Zoo CEO Richard Glover.

Glover said the growth is a good thing since the event is one of the zoo’s biggest fundraisers.

“This event helps us to fund a lot of our conservation and education work. The zoo saw over 54,000 people in our education programs last year so that’s a really important thing to us and to the community. As far as conservation, any extra money that we can get allows us to work on keeping some of these endangered and threatened species alive,” said Glover.

The event also includes live music, entertainment and holiday-inspired food and drinks.

But you’ve got to visit at night. The festival is a separate ticketed event than the general admission daytime passes. The festival runs through January 14th, 2024. Tickets start at $22.99, with a four-pack deal for $71.

Click HERE for the Asian Lantern schedule and ticketing information.