Water Lantern Festival Boise: what to know before you go

The Water Lantern Festival lands at Julia Davis Park on August 15, and if you've seen the photos online, thousands of glowing lanterns drifting across the water, this is where they come from. Here's what to actually expect if you're going this year.

Water Lantern Festival Boise, the basics

Gates open at 6pm and the event runs until 10pm, with food trucks, music, and activities filling the evening before the main event.

Around 8:30, you'll get time to design your own lantern, and the full lantern launch happens 9 to 10pm as the sun goes down.

Every ticket includes a lantern kit, an LED candle, and markers, so there's nothing extra to bring or prep ahead of time.

Tickets and pricing

General admission runs in the low $30s depending on when you buy, with early bird pricing typically the better deal.

Group packages are also available in sets of four at a discount per person.

This event has sold out in past years, so buying ahead rather than showing up hoping for tickets at the gate is the safer move.

One thing worth knowing before you buy

There's more than one lantern-style event using similar branding around Boise this year, including a separately ticketed version running through a different platform on the same date, plus an unrelated sky lantern event earlier in the year that released lanterns into the air rather than onto water.

If you're buying tickets, double check you're on the official Water Lantern Festival site so you know exactly which event, and which refund policy, you're signing up for.

Getting there

Julia Davis Park sits right along the Boise River Greenbelt, so parking near downtown and walking in is usually easier than trying to park directly at the park itself once the evening gets busy.