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ILLUMINASIA Lights Up Calgary Zoo

September 7th, 2015  |  News

Lions, tigers, and bears. Oh my! Or at least lanterns made to look like them.

September will see the inaugural opening of ILLUMINASIA, a lantern and garden festival, hosted by the Calgary Zoo and Sinopec Canada. The seven week long event, running from September 17 to November 1, will be sure to draw crowds like many other well-known Canadian festivals.

Over 350 Chinese lanterns have been shaped into zoo animals for the event, some like pandas, zebras and giraffes. The Calgary Zoo worked with over 40 artisans in the Sichuan Province of China to create the lanterns, made from a wire frame with a rayon fabric stretched over them.

Cultural events will take place during the festival, celebrating Chinese, Japanese and Indian traditions. “The lantern festival is a celebration of the artistry of lantern making and an opportunity for people to get together as a community,” says Calgary Zoo special events adviser Roz Freeman.

The lanterns will be arranged in themed exhibits around the zoo, including penguins on a large lantern iceberg and butterflies displayed in the Enmax conservatory. Freeman says the zoo hopes ILLUMINASIA will become “the premier multicultural festival in Western Canada.”

Image Courtesy of Adobe Stock