Lanterns 2019 Wildwood Park
Lanterns is west Little Rock's most popular outdoor festival! Each year, we celebrate the food, music, crafts, and performing arts of a new combination of world cultures, fantasy lands, and one US city. Come explore the beautiful outdoor lights along our woodland trails! You can even light your own lantern and float it onto our lake for good luck!
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Lanterns is also the major annual fundraising event for Wildwood Park for the Arts.
Your ticket and concessions purchases help us
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Preserve the natural beauty of our trails and gardens
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Provide nature, arts, and music education classes to children and adults
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Bring you more concerts, stage shows, and community festivals
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Keep the park free to the public year-round
Your evening of entertainment preserves our 105 acres of green space in west Little Rock and nurtures the next generation of artists in Arkansas!
Featured Cultures for Lanterns 2026
What to Do at Lanterns 2026
Hours
Thur., Apr. 16: 6 - 9 pm
Fri., Apr. 17: 6 - 10 pm
Sat., Apr. 18: 4 - 10 pm
Sun., April 19: 4 - 9 pm
There's something for everyone to enjoy at Lanterns!
Below are the top 8 activities for you to experience this year.
For more tips, check out our Planning Your Visit page!
1. Explore our woodland trails lined with beautiful lights!
Enjoy an evening walk at sunset along the banks of Swan Lake.
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The woods have a peaceful, almost magical quality at night. Follow the trails lined with luminarias to see and experience all our cultural vistas!
Free with admission to Lanterns.
2. Buy a floating lantern to light and launch on Swan Lake!
Floating lanterns are a symbol of good luck in many world cultures. For just $5, you can launch your own lantern at our Butler Gazebo and make a wish for good fortune!
This activity requires WildBucks.
3. Sample food and beverages from different world cultures!
Each of our cultural vistas has different entrees, side items, desserts, and drinks for you to try. China, Italy, Egypt, Japan, and Honolulu offer foods associated with those cultures, while The Land of Oz offers traditional favorites the kids will love. See our menu page!
This activity requires Wildbucks.
4. Enjoy our free multicultural indoor stage show!
Each year, Lanterns showcases performing arts from one or more of the cultures featured at the festival. This year, 5 cultures will be represented through energetic songs and dances to entertain the entire family!
Free with admission to Lanterns.
5. Follow the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City!
New in 2026, our Land of Oz is a fantasy land for children of all ages designed around characters and stories from L. Frank Baum's Oz books. Take photos in the Emerald City with Dorothy, Glinda, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, and even the Wicked Witch of the West!
Free with admission to Lanterns.
6. Ride a hot air balloon!
Get a view of Wildwood Park from 50 feet in the air in a hot air balloon flight inspired by the Wizard of Oz's mode of travel into and out of the Land of Oz. This balloon will be safely tethered, though -- after all, you can just walk to Oz inside the park!
This activity requires a separate ticket purchase, and a very limited number of tickets are available. Get more details at our Balloon Rides page.
7. Ride a camel in Egypt!
If you've wondered what it's like to travel the deserts of Egypt on a camel, now's you can find out! Thanks to the good folks at Cockrill's Country Critters, we're offering visitors the chance to see, touch, and even ride live camels at our Egypt vista. Both children and adults are welcome to ride!
This activity requires Wildbucks. Get more details at our Camel Rides page.
8. Complete the crocodile scavenger hunt!
Crocodiles from Egypt have escaped into the park so they can have fun at the festival! They're dressing up to blend in with the cultures they're visiting -- there's one in the photo at the left, trying to look like the Tin Man in Oz! Can you find them all? Take a photo with the crocodile hiding in each vista, then show your photos at the front gate to win a prize!
Free with admission to Lanterns.
How to Get to Lanterns 2026
Lanterns is held every spring at Wildwood Park for the Arts, located at 20919 Denny Road in Little Rock, Arkansas.
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Some limited parking for the festival is available across the street from the park's entrance gates. This area will fill quickly, and there is a charge of $10 per car to park across the street.
We strongly recommend that you park for free at The Promenade at Chenal shopping center just five minutes from Wildwood and take our free parking shuttle to get to the front gates. Shuttles are scheduled to arrive at The Promenade every 15 minutes, and they will also pick you up at Wildwood's front gates to take you back to your car.
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Some (but not all) of our cultural sites (called "vistas") are accessible to people with mobility issues. For more details on accommodations available to our guests, please see the section on Planning Your Visit.