China Lights 2023 from Sept. 15 to Oct. 29

The display will be at Boerner Botanical Gardens from Sept. 15 to Oct. 29.

The display will be at Boerner Botanical Gardens from Sept. 15 to Oct. 29.

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The display will be at Boerner Botanical Gardens from Sept. 15 to Oct. 29.

This year's China Lights theme is Nature's Glow. An animated crab that spits bubbles and smoke, a glowing mandarin fish, and a giant octopus tunnel are some of the highlights of this year's event.

The display will be at Boerner Botanical Gardens from Sept. 15 to Oct. 29.

The popular Chinese lantern festival features more than 40 larger-than-life themed lanterns, which are 99.9% new this year.

"This year, we have more than 40 sets of displays, all of the theme of Nature's Glow," said Huiyuan Liu, event manager for Tianyu Arts & Culture, Inc. "You can see a lot of ocean creatures and creatures of the jungle."

The lantern displays made their debut at the Natural History Museum of France. Milwaukee is the first stop in the United States to view this show.

China Lights is one of the most successful fundraisers the Milwaukee County Parks system sees all year, bringing in almost $400,000 in 2022.

"Because of the length of the event, the great partnership that we have, it's raised a lot of funds for us," said Guy Smith, executive director for Milwaukee County Parks. "We're so thankful for that opportunity."

Those behind the big event say they're grateful to bring Milwaukee this unique cultural experience.

"I just think it's really important to be able to bring cultural awareness, and to be able to maybe expose people to something that they've never seen before," said Smith. "I think China Lights really does a great job of that."

All tickets are date and time specific chinalights.org is the only official website for event tickets.

Online ticket prices:

Tickets go on sale Aug. 8 at chinalights.org

A limited number of walk-up tickets are available at the box office for people to purchase. The box office is open on all event nights from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. There will be a surcharge of $4 - $12 for walk-up tickets. The box office may close early if the event exceeds its capacity limit for the night.

Ticket discounts can be found by buying tickets in person at Festival Foods stores, or by donating blood to any Versiti Blood Donation Center.

Walk-up ticket prices:

Limited complimentary parking is available on a first-come, first-served basis. There are 5 fully lit lots at Whitnall Park.

Paid parking in the Close-up Parking Lot will offer parking nearest the China Lights entrance. Pass for this lot may be purchased on-site only.

Accessible/Disabled Parking

The Close-up Parking Lot (will also be available on a first-come, first-served basis to people with disabilities who have state-issued disabled parking or disabled Veteran parking license plates or the state-issued disabled parking identification car.

The light display will be accompanied by live entertainment on the We-Energies stage each night, with favorite acts like face-changing and foot juggling. Stage performance is at 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. every Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. An extra show will be added at 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

The festival has a variety of food and beverage selections, including the popular beer garden in the shrub mall area.

To view the food and beverage options, view the China Lights menu webpage.