Winter Lantern Festival to bring seasonal light display, entertainment to Jamestown Settlement

JAMESTOWN – A new holiday event titled the Winter Lantern Festival is slated to kick off at Jamestown Settlement this week.

The vibrant display, which coincides with a new exhibition on Chinese Ming Porcelain in early Jamestown, will light up the grounds of the living history museum with about 1,000 handcrafted Chinese lanterns.

Produced by Kaleido Entertainment, the event is designed to transform the night into a “magical journey of culture and imagination,” according to the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation.

Guests will journey through an outdoor trail aglow with 6-to-30-foot lanterns inspired by traditional folklore. The experience is designed to last for about an hour.

In addition to the light display, tickets to the event include a live acrobatic performance. Local vendors will be on site selling food and beverages.

The lantern festival first kicked off in New York City in 2018.

Original organizers Conglin Miao and Haokun Liu established the event after arriving in the city to study at New York University.

“We didn’t see many authentic Chinese festivals,” Miao told Daily News at the time. “So we decided to create one.”

Now in its fifth year, the festival has drawn more than 650,000 attendees since its founding. It began to expand to other towns and cities outside of New York in 2023.

In addition to coming to Williamsburg, the event will also be held in Westwego, Louisiana, and Tysons, Virginia this year.

Tickets are separate from museum admission and start at $18. Children ages 2 and under are admitted free. The Winter Lantern Festival begins on Nov. 13 and runs Thursdays through Sundays, 5 to 10 p.m., through Jan. 4, 2026.

For additional information or to purchase tickets, visit the JYF Museums website.