This Friday and Saturday night, be assured the glowing lights north of Grantsville aren’t UFOs.
The Salt Lake Lantern Fest will be held Sept. 11-12 and, despite the name, the festivities will take place at Bonneville Seabase in Grantsville. Thousands of biodegradable paper lanterns will be lit and launched into the sky. The two-day event also features live music, fire pits and s’mores-making.
The lanterns will be released between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m., with an expected launch time around 8:45 p.m., according to event organizer Spencer Humiston during last week’s Grantsville City Council meeting.
Attendees should bring blankets and chairs to sit on and jackets should it get cold during the night.
Passes are $35 for adults, while children between four and 15 years old must register for a $5 kid’s pass and children three and under are free. A lantern pass to the event includes a wristband granting entrance, a lantern, a marker, a lighter and supplies to make four s’mores.
There is also a $5 fee for parking.
The lantern festival has already sold out 2,500 adult lantern passes for Saturday and a Friday date was added as a result.
Proceeds from the Salt Lake Lantern Fest will benefit the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Intermountain Area.
Humiston appeared before the Grantsville City Council to request permission for the second day after tickets had already gone on sale for the Friday date.
The city council agreed to holding the event after Mayor Brent Marshall and the Grantsville City Fire Department test-launched some of the lanterns. The lanterns have a range of about a quarter mile and the fuel source should be burnt out before landing.
Part of the approval from the city is the fire department can cancel the lanterns at any point prior to launch due to wind speed or other factors. If there are any fires sparked by the lanterns at Friday’s event, the Saturday event would be canceled, event organizers and city council agreed.
“I can’t even imagine, if we started a fire on Friday, just showing up again Saturday and being like, ‘Let’s do this again, fellas,’” Humiston said at the council meeting.
Back in May, a lantern at a Lantern Fest event in Gastonia, North Carolina, caught a communications tower on fire, about 250 feet above the ground.
If the event is canceled prior to its start, attendees will be notified by email, Humiston said.
For Friday and Saturday’s events, the gates open at 3 p.m.