The Water Lantern Festival is one evening, a pond and a few thousand paper lanterns. Guests arrive in the early evening, decorate a lantern with a message, a drawing or a name, eat from the food trucks while a band plays, and then, as the light goes, set their lanterns on the water together and watch them drift. It is a traveling event that one company stages in cities across North America, and its Utah County edition has been held not in Provo, as some listings say, but at Knoll Park on Salem Pond, in the small city at the south end of the valley that grew up around that pond.
That setting is a good match. Salem Pond is small, calm and enclosed, with a walking path around it and a footbridge across it, so a crowd can line the banks all the way around it. For a city that was once called Pond Town, it is hard to think of a more fitting event.
This guide covers what the Water Lantern Festival is, how the evening works, what a ticket includes, what happens to the lanterns afterward, the Salem setting, how to plan the night and how to find the next date. It draws on the organizer's own pages and on the event listings for its recent Utah County editions. Where a year is named, it describes how the festival has run, not a promise about the next one.
Where It Happens, and the Provo Mix-Up
The Water Lantern Festival's Utah County edition has been held at Knoll Park, 150 West 300 South in Salem. The park sits on the west side of Salem Pond, and the lanterns go onto the pond itself.
The event sometimes appears in listings as a Provo event on Utah Lake. That is not where it has been held. The organizer's own Utah County page for its 2024 edition put it at Knoll Park, and the local event listings for its 2025 edition, including the Utah Cultural Alliance's NowPlayingUtah calendar, did the same. If you are driving from Provo, plan for Salem, about half an hour south.
It is worth getting this right before you buy a ticket and set out. Salem Pond is at the center of a small town with residential streets around it, not on the shore of a large lake, and parking and arrival work very differently as a result.
When It Happens
The Water Lantern Festival has no fixed date in Utah County. The organizer schedules each city on its own calendar, and recent Utah County editions have fallen in different seasons: Saturday, September 21, 2024, and Saturday, July 19, 2025, when listings put the event from early evening into the night.
As of September 2026, the organizer's Utah County page did not list a date or a venue for another edition. That does not necessarily mean the festival is gone. The company keeps event pages for its cities and posts dates when tickets are released, and it offers an alert for people who want to hear before tickets go on sale. The best way to catch the next one is to sign up for that alert on the Utah County page.
What stays constant is the timing of the evening itself. The lantern launch happens at dusk, so the event runs from late afternoon or early evening into the night, and the exact times are posted on each city's event page once a date is set.
How the Evening Works
The organizer describes the evening in three parts, and they happen in order.
Arrive and explore. Guests check in, pick up their lantern kits and settle into the festival grounds. Live music, food trucks and lawn games fill the time before the launch, and s'mores stations are part of the program at most locations. The organizer's advice is to arrive at the start of check-in, which gives you time to eat, listen and decorate without rushing.
Create and connect. This is the heart of the event. Each guest decorates a paper lantern with a message, a drawing, a hope or the name of someone they are remembering. Families decorate together, couples write to each other, and some guests write to someone who is gone. The lanterns become personal before they ever touch the water.
Launch and reflect. As the sun sets, everyone takes their lantern to the water and sets it afloat at the same time. The organizer describes it as a shared moment, and it is: thousands of small lights spreading across the surface, reflected back from the water, while the crowd goes quiet. Many guests stay on the banks afterward to watch the lanterns drift.
What a Ticket Includes
The organizer lists what comes with each ticket: a floating lantern, a decorating kit, an LED candle, a marker and a wristband, along with access to the live music, food trucks, lawn games and the lantern launch. Food from the trucks is sold separately.
The LED candle is a detail worth noticing. The lanterns glow with battery-powered lights rather than open flames, which is safer on crowded banks and around children, and it means a gust of wind will not put your lantern out halfway across the pond.
Children under eight get in free and do not need a ticket, according to the organizer, and anyone eight or older needs one. Since the lantern kit comes with the ticket, a younger child who wants a lantern of their own will need a ticket too, or can share the decorating with a parent.
Ticket Prices and Types
Prices change with the date and the kind of ticket. The organizer has advertised tickets starting at $24.99, and its city event pages have used a tiered system that rises as the event approaches, moving from early-bird pricing through regular and late pricing to a higher day-of price. Its pages have also listed options such as VIP tickets, a date-night special and a family bundle.
The practical rule is simple: buy early. The organizer offers to alert subscribers before prices go up or tickets sell out, and the difference between the first tier and the day-of price can be significant for a family.
Tickets are non-refundable but transferable, according to the organizer. If plans change, you can pass a ticket to someone else or apply it to a future event by contacting its support team.
What Happens to the Lanterns
The most common question about the Water Lantern Festival is what becomes of thousands of lanterns set loose on a pond. The organizer's answer is direct. It says its lanterns are biodegradable and water-safe, that every single lantern is collected after the event, and that its team does a full cleanup of the venue to leave no trace.
The company describes its approach as leaving each venue better than it found it, and it says its crews also pick up trash that was already at the site before the festival arrived. For a small pond that doubles as a community fishery and a neighborhood park, that commitment matters, and it is worth knowing that the lanterns are meant to come out of the water the same night they go in.
It is also worth being clear about what the festival is not. Water lanterns float on the surface and are gathered up afterward; they are not sky lanterns released into the air, which is a different practice with different risks.
Salem Pond and Knoll Park
Salem Pond is a small, spring-fed pond of about eleven acres at the center of Salem. Settlers created it by damming a spring in the town's earliest years and built a fort along its edge, and the town grew up around the water, which is why Salem was first known as Pond Town. Historic markers near the pond recall that early fort and the town's first post office.
Knoll Park is on the pond's west side, shaded by tall trees, with lawns, a pavilion and picnic tables. A paved path circles the pond and a footbridge crosses it, which gives a lantern crowd plenty of places to stand. Outside of festival nights, the pond is a community fishery stocked for anglers, and it is used for paddleboarding, canoeing and kayaking; motorized boats are not allowed.
Salem uses the pond for its own celebrations too. During Salem Days, the city's summer celebration, the fireworks go up over the pond at Knoll Park and the parade winds around the water. Our guide to living in Salem covers the town, and our guide to kid-friendly fishing ponds in Utah County covers the pond's other life.
Planning the Night
Buy early. Tickets are cheaper in the early tiers and can sell out. Sign up for the organizer's alert so you hear when the Utah County date is posted.
Arrive at check-in. The organizer recommends arriving when check-in opens, so you have time for food, music and decorating before the launch. Decorating takes longer than most people expect, especially with children.
Plan your message. Many guests arrive knowing what they want to write, whether it is a wish, a thank-you or a name. Thinking about it ahead of time makes the decorating easier and the launch more meaningful.
Bring blankets and chairs. You will spend a couple of hours on the lawn before the launch. A blanket or low chairs make the evening far more comfortable.
Dress for the evening. Even after a hot day, the evening near the water can turn cool. Bring a layer, and consider insect repellent for dusk by the pond.
Park with patience. Knoll Park sits among Salem's residential streets rather than beside a large lot, so allow time to find a spot, respect driveways and neighbors, and expect a slow exit after the launch.
Who It Suits
The Water Lantern Festival is a calm event, and it suits people who want that. Families with children enjoy the decorating and the moment of the launch. Couples use it as a date night, and the organizer's date-night ticket option reflects that. For people who have lost someone, it can be a gentle, public way to remember them, since so many lanterns carry names.
It is less suited to anyone looking for high energy. It is not a rides-and-fireworks night, and the highlight of the evening is quiet by design. Our guide to date-night activities in Utah Valley collects other evening ideas if you want something livelier.
Making an Evening of It in Salem
Salem is small, and an evening at the festival is easy to combine with the town. Arrive early enough to walk the path around the pond before the crowds settle, cross the footbridge for a view of the whole surface, and read the historic markers near the water. If you have children, the park and the pond's edges give them room to move before they need to sit still for the launch.
For dinner, the food trucks at the festival are the simplest option. If you would rather eat before you arrive, Salem, Payson and Spanish Fork are all close, and the drive home to Provo or Orem after the launch is an easy one on I-15.
Who Runs It
The Water Lantern Festival is a production company's event, not a city celebration, and that shapes how it works. The company stages the same format in many cities, each on its own single night, and its current calendar has included cities as far apart as Minneapolis, Reno, Long Island and Toronto. Its team says it has produced hundreds of events around the world, with more than a million attendees combined.
That explains a few things local visitors notice. Tickets, dates and customer support run through the company rather than the city. The venue is a local partner that hosts the event for a night. And the date for any one city, including Utah County, depends on the company's touring calendar, which is why it can move from September one year to July the next, or skip a season.
For Local Groups: Fundraising at the Festival
The festival also offers a way for community groups to raise money. The organizer says local groups and clubs can help run the event and earn a payment for each volunteer on each shift they work in event operations. Teams and groups can also sell festival tickets and keep a profit on each ticket sold.
For a youth team, a club or a service group in the south end of the valley, that is a practical way to fund jerseys, equipment or a trip while helping a community event run smoothly. The organizer takes sign-ups for both options through a form on its fundraising page, and groups interested in a Utah County date should apply once the next one is announced.
Photographing the Launch
Most guests want a picture of the moment, and a few habits help. The best light comes in the short window just after the sun goes down, when the sky still holds some color and the lanterns are glowing, so be ready before the launch begins. Turn off your flash, which only lights up the people in front of you and flattens the lanterns.
Brace your phone on something steady, such as the footbridge railing or a bench along the path, and use your phone's night mode if it has one. Shooting low, close to the water, catches the reflections that make these photos. Take a picture of your own lantern before it goes on the water, too, so you keep the message after the lanterns are collected. And be kind to the people behind you: a raised phone blocks someone else's view of the moment they came for.
Bringing Children Near the Water
The launch brings a crowd to the edge of the pond, so hold on to small children when your group walks down to set its lanterns afloat. Salem Pond is shallow near many of its edges, but a crowded bank at dusk is still no place for a toddler to wander.
Do the decorating early, while children are fresh and the light is good, and remember that the launch happens at dusk, which may be past bedtime for the youngest. The LED candles mean there is no open flame to worry about. A small flashlight helps on the walk back to the car, when the lanterns are on the water and the park has gone dark.
Other Nights of Light in Utah Valley
If the Water Lantern Festival is not on the calendar when you want it, Utah Valley has other nights built around light. Luminaria at Thanksgiving Point turns the gardens into a lighted walk in the holiday season, and the valley's Christmas lights displays fill December. Salem's own fireworks over the pond during Salem Days are another way to see the water lit up at night.
For the full calendar of festivals and celebrations, the festivals hub collects them, and the festival and celebration finder filters them by month and city.
A Few Practical Tips
Check the organizer's Utah County page before planning around the festival, since dates and venues are posted only when tickets are released. Keep your ticket confirmation handy for check-in, and remember that the lantern kit comes with a ticket, so every guest who wants a lantern needs one.
Bring a pen or marker of your own if you want more colors than the kit provides, a blanket, a warm layer and a flashlight for the walk back to the car. Most of all, give yourself time. The launch is only a few minutes long, but the hours before it, spent decorating and waiting for dusk, are much of what people remember.
The Short Version
The Water Lantern Festival is a traveling evening event where guests decorate paper lanterns with messages and launch them together on the water at dusk. Its Utah County edition has been held at Knoll Park on Salem Pond, not in Provo, most recently in September 2024 and July 2025. A ticket includes the lantern, a decorating kit, an LED candle, a marker and a wristband, children under eight are free, and every lantern is collected afterward. As of September 2026 the organizer had not posted the next Utah County date, so sign up for its alert and buy early when tickets are released.
Related Guides
- Salem Days
- Living in Salem
- Kid-Friendly Fishing Ponds in Utah County
- Luminaria at Thanksgiving Point
- Date-Night Activities in Utah Valley
- Festivals and Celebrations in Utah County
- Festival and Celebration Finder
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is the Water Lantern Festival in Utah County held?
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