The show is outdoors, and it’s rain-or-shine. The Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festival takes place at Franklin Square, located at 6th and Race streets. Visit the Pagoda Gift Shop for souvenirs like toys, hand-made crafts, and various kinds of flashy glow wands and crowns. Last call for the beer garden is 10 p.m., and you can stroll through the entire festival in the square with your adult beverage in hand. You’ll also find more Asian cuisine in the tent, courtesy of Oishii, including seaweed salad, mochi ice cream, chicken satay, and shrimp tempura (and yes, we realize none of these dishes are Chinese). The beer garden will serve draft beers, mocktails and four signature cocktails, including a green tea cocktail and a Peking Gin & Ginger. The Dragon Beer Garden is also back, this year in a clear tent. Sang Kee also has a $12 pineapple smoothie that comes in a pineapple, so live your best life. In addition, Sang Kee’s pop-up stand will serve a variety of Chinese specialties in meal-box combos, plus a la carte options including bao buns, dan dan noodles, and more. The Franklin Square fixture SquareBurger will be operating as usual, with familiar favorites like burgers, fries and shakes. The Franklin Square fountain decked out for the Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festival / Photograph by Laura Swartz Eat and Shop This year also seems to have more of an eye toward social media - while most displays remain roped-off to protect the art, Instagram-ready installations include light-up rainbow wings to pose in front of, and a kaleidoscope selfie spot similar to the one you’d find in the Museum of Illusions. One allows guests to play a drum to change the lantern colors, another requires two people (or one with a wide stride) to stand to light up a heart. This year features all-new lantern designs (over 30 installations), many of which have additional features like interactivity and movement. While the lanterns look light and ethereal, they each have a steel frame that is welded into shape, wired with a series of LED lights (in total, 20,000 lights), wrapped with large sheets of silk, and hand-painted. The festival showcases the amazing craftsmanship, cultural significance and artistic beauty of the lanterns, which were built from the ground up right in Franklin Square during a month of welding, silk wrapping and painting.
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