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Illumination: Once again, Rise lantern festival turns the Mojave into a lightscape

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Lanterns float in the sky as participants make more to release at the Rise Festival in the Moapa River Indian Reservation on October 10, 2015.
Photo: Mikayla Whitmore

The desert floor is a giant beach sprawling with families and friends parked on bamboo mats in the sand by unlit tiki torches. Folk-revival sounds from an LA band rev the crowd and amplify the landscape while others are still on the freeway locked in traffic, winding through the vast parking lot or on foot trekking the long path to the entrance. Organizers say more than 10,000 have come to the Rise lantern festival at the Moapa River Reservation just north of North Las Vegas—despite the fiasco of last year’s launch, where messy traffic, poor organization and gnarly behavior dominated memories. People obviously wanted it back. “This is fairly unique,” says Peng Lei, who drove in from LA with his wife and friends to see it happen. “There aren’t very many people who do this.” Organizers delay the launch to accommodate those stuck in traffic. Eventually the air smells of lantern oil, and flames illuminate the crowd. The boxy white paper votives scribbled with hopes and dreams move upward, soaring. Some bump into attendees and skitter before rising. More than 20,000 lights go into the blackness, creating their own galaxy while soft, dreamy, ethereal music pours out over giant speakers. For a while, the complaining about traffic getting here and debates about whether lanterns will be retrieved or litter the landscape is swallowed by the marvelous chorus in the sky.

2015 Rise Festival

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